Abstract:
Purpose: Personal development and pursuance of higher education in nursing is considered
important for the nurses to stay abreast in the dynamic medical world and promote excellence in
practice. In a world with emerging complex diseases, there is high demand for a highly skilled
and critically thinking nurse. At the Baccalaureate level or higher to match international
standards. Determine nurse related challenges that determine whether a nurse enrolls in a
diploma to degree nursing program, their performance during the program and their decision to
hold on to the end
Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive cross sectional design, carried out among a
randomly sampled population of 220 nurses who work in the hospital. Data was collected using
self-administered questionnaires from a simple random sample of 140 nurses. Data analysis was
done by SPSS version 22.0. Measures of central tendency mean and range were used. The
findings have been presented in form of figures, tables, pie-charts and narrative texts.
Results: A total of 120 participants filled questionnaires representing an 85% response rate.
78% (n=93) were female, and 22% (n=27) were male, Chi-square analysis showed that there was
significant correlation in some factors like the designation of a nurse impacted the motivation to
upgrade (x2
=20.96, df=12, p=0.05) and nursing officers III (n=46, 48.8%) were motivated to
upgrade to higher education levels. Family responsibilities of the nurses affected their decision
or process of upgrading (x2
=6.752, df=6, p=0.03).
Conclusion: Lack of motivation and difficulty balancing work and study were found to be the
major nurse related challenges of upgrading. These factors should be looked into in order for the
nursing fraternity to be able to serve the patient better thus having better patient outcomes.
Recommendations: This study recommended that the nurse should be self-motivated to upgrade
in the nursing career, the employer to provide favorable shifts in order to nurse to have life
balance and policies on career progression and remuneration should be promoted.
Keywords: Upgrading Nurse, Diploma, Baccalaureate, Challenges of Diploma Nurse
