Exploring the Effects of Lack of Pocket Money on Undergraduate Clinical Year Health Science Students’ Learning Activities
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background
The expenses of the university lead to various challenges and affects students’ daily learning activities. In developing countries, higher education students face acute financial problem, which affects their daily educational activities. In Ethiopian higher educational system, students obtained the cost sharing benefits, which do not entitle them to get cash money. Health sciences students need additional costs other than common expenses in the university during clinical Therefore; lack of pocket money primarily affects students’ daily learning activities.
Objectives
The main objective of this research is to explore the challenges that undergraduate health science students faced due to lack of pocket money and the perceived effects of financial hardships on their learning activities during clinical years.
Methods
Year three and four MRT students have been selected for the study. Purposeful sampling method and snowball sampling method in getting those who are potentially in similar conditions with those who interviewed but missed during the selection of participants using the purposeful method. Accordingly, ten participants were identified and the semi-structured used to collect data. The interview took place from January 28, 2019, to February 1, 2019.
Result
The challenges due to acute financial hardships include difficulty in affording basic needs, unable to get into friendship, and struggling with small pocket money management. These challenges are rooted in poverty, poor parental awareness of university expenses, bad cost-sharing policy and poor management in the university. The interrelationship among these challenges and learning activities were also discussed. Lack of pocket money enforced students to stay hungry and quit studying, from coming late to the class to absent from the class, loss of attention in class, and missing clinical placement learning. Thus, there is a poor learning process and the clinical skills are not learned as expected, which directly affects students’ competencies.
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Keywords
Undergraduate, Student, Higher Education, Pocket money, Learning, Ethiopia, health science student, undergraduate, socioeconomicstatus, clinical placement.