THE INFLUENCE OF STUDENT AID AND PRICES ON WITHIN-YEAR PERSISTENCE BY UNDERGRADUATES IN THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONS.
Contributors: University of New Orleans.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 195
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: Projections for health care delivery by the year 2000 indicate that a greater number and a more well prepared health care professional will be needed to provide services to an expanding population. In order to respond to this demand attention is needed to retain students enrolled in health care educational programs.

Previous research on the relationship of different types of financial aid and persistence has indicated that there is a positive influence. This study was designed to view the influence of financial aid on undergraduates in the health care professions, with a focus on nursing. Previous research in nursing and the health care professions has not focused on the influence of student aid, prices or living expenses on persistence. Past research has focused on student characteristics and other contributing factors.

This study used data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (1987) to examine the persistence of undergraduate students in the health care professions. This study adapted a persistence model developed by St. John (1989), and undergraduates in the health care profession students were compared with undergraduates in the total population.

The model considers persistence to be a function of social background, financial choices, college characteristics, college experience, aspirations, price (tuition), price subsidies (grants, loans and work study), and living expenses (housing and commuting).

Price response as a way of assessing the effects of financial aid has proved to be a research approach that can be of interest for persistence studies in nursing and other health care professions. In previous studies financial aid has not been a principal factor in persistence studies of educational programs designed for the health care professions. Five research questions were studied to examine the within-year persistence of undergraduates in allied health, health science and nursing majors. The results of this study indicated that when undergraduates in the health care professions were compared to all other undergraduates the health cares professions' students were more price sensitive to differentials related to loans and changes in tuition differentials. The total population was also price sensitive to tuition differentials and financial aid packages that included work-study.

Accomplishments of the study included: (1) an adapted model for research on persistence of health care undergraduates focusing on price and price subsidies, and (2) application of a statistical model appropriate for dichotomous variables.

Findings of the study indicate that the probability of persistence is greater for health professions' students than for undergraduates in the total population.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-08, Section: B, page: 4980.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS, 1996.

School code: 0108.