Staying the course: Examining enablers and barriers to student success within undergraduate nursing programmes

In line with current trends towards a positive and enhancement-led perspective, this account of a research project carried out in a Scottish university considers the student nurse experience as a lens for examining retention enablers. Two phases of interviews with final year students from a diverse cohort, many of whom were adult learners, informed the development of a series of themes and recommendations for better understanding factors which encourage persistence. A combination of grounded theory thematic analysis and narrative interpretation was used in this research to encourage a rich biographical component.