Supportive Counseling for the Students with Low Academic Achievement: An interventional study

Low academic achievement and educational failure are yet considered as the most usual reason for student's drop out. Performing supportive interventions seem essential for these students. This study has tried to determine the effect of a supportive counseling program on nursing student's academic achievement in Iran University of Medical Sciences. Forty two BS nursing students with low academic achievement were selected with simple random sampling in this quasi-experimental study in 2007. Intervention included a supportive counseling program which was conducted for one semester in from of individual and group counseling sessions. The data were collected by researcher made forms inquiring student's demographic data and scores record to check their academic status. The data were analyzed by statistical tests of X2,, independent T-test and Man Whitney Test through SPSS software. The findings showed that mean score increments of subjects in experimental group were more than the control, but the difference was not statistically significant. Mean scores difference in experimental group among boys was significantly more than those of girls. Although the effect of supportive counseling programs on nursing student's academic achievement was not proved in this study, reinforcement of teacher's supportive and conductive role and facilities for supportive interventions for these students and promotion of better dormitory life is recommended.