Experiences of transfer students in a collaborative baccalaureate nursing program.

Community college students who transfer to universities face innumerable challenges. While documented in the American literature on transfer, there has been relatively little published research on transfer in Canada. This paper explores the experience of nursing students transferring from three community colleges to a large urban university in Ontario, Canada.

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Transferring from a community college to a university for degree completion is not a new phenomenon in American higher education; nevertheless, in Canada transfer is not part of the original mandate of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology, nor is it supported in the Canadian province of Ontario. Transfer in Canada is strong in provinces that support transfer as a charge of the higher education system. Interest in the remaining provinces is burgeoning, particularly in Ontario with government-supported pathways; however, transfer as a provincial community college mandate has yet to be established.

With the announcement of the baccalaureate degree as entry to practice for new registrants to the nursing profession in Ontario, community colleges and universities were directed to deliver nursing education collaboratively. A number of collaborative models emerged, including articulation models where students begin their studies at a community college and then transfer to a university. Approximately half of the nursing students in Ontario are enrolled in these articulated collaborative programs. In a system that does not support transfer, what are the experiences of these students?

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of transfer students in a collaborative baccalaureate nursing program. Utilizing a naturalistic approach, both qualitative and qualitative data were gathered to elucidate the feelings, experiences, and satisfaction of third-year nursing students in a collaborative articulated program. Fifty-four students responded to a questionnaire, and a subgroup of 13 students--selected through purposeful sampling--was interviewed.

Relevant Literature

After several years of decline in transfer rates (Grubb, 1991; Palmer & Eaton, 1991), there is a renewed commitment to the transfer function of community colleges in the United States. The majority of literature on transfer supports transfer programs as the most efficient pathway for students to receive advanced education (Andero, 1992; Andres, 2001; Bell, 1998; Cejda, Kaylor, & Rewey, 1998; Davies & Casey, 1999; Dennison, 1978; Laanan & Sanchez, 1996; Piland, 1995; Tyler & Small, 1990). As Cohen (1996) summarized:

   Half of the students who begin college in America--and an even
   higher proportion of underrepresented minorities--matriculate at
   community colleges. If the bachelor's degree is a requisite for
   major social and economic advancement, then transfer must be
   an essential community college mission. (p. 1)

Additionally, a considerable number of studies (Davies & Dickmann, 1998; Laanan, 1996; Townsend, 1995; Woolley, McLaughlin, & Durham, 1990) expose the struggles and challenges faced by the transfer student; nevertheless, the majority of students report satisfaction with the process. In spite of the recommendation from many studies that jointly planned curriculum would improve the outcomes of transfer programs, little research has been conducted on such collaborative programs.

In the review of the literature, no theory or conceptual model surfaced to explain the transition process experienced by transfer students in their journey from community college to university. Consequently, the inquiry was broadened to include related phenomena--specifically persistence and transition--to help explain the experiences of transfer students. The experiences of freshmen entering post-secondary education tend to be similar, at least in some ways, to those experienced by students transferring from community college to university.

Tinto (1975, 1993) theorizes that ease of transition and successful persistence depend on the strength of the student-institution match. Student characteristics influencing the higher education experience are grouped into three categories: family background (socioeconomic status, parental educational level, and family expectations); individual attributes (academic ability, coping abilities, personality, race, and gender), and pre-college schooling (secondary school characteristics and GPA). The student characteristics were thought to combine and influence student commitment to the institution and the goal of graduating. Strong commitment impacts whether the student successfully navigates the transition stage or departs from the institution. Additionally, Tinto argues that subsequent experiences during the transition stage are also related to persistence. Of primary importance are those that arise from interactions between the student and other members of the institution (peers, faculty, and staff) and academic performance. These interactions facilitate social and academic integration, which in turn reinforce students' commitment to both the institution and their own academic goals.

"A transition, broadly, is any event, or non-event, that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles" (Schlossberg, Waters, & Goodman, 1995, p. 27). Theory describing the phenomena of transition has special relevance to this study since transfer from community college to university requires a transition from the old role of community college student to the new role of university student. Tinto (1993) fleshed out the three major stages of transition based on van Gennep's (1960) pioneer work by describing some of the difficulties that students must navigate on their journey to becoming fully incorporated into university life. Students initiate the transition process by leaving the past behind, separating, disassociating, and distancing themselves from their membership in past communities, usually family and high school. Upon arrival to university, students experience a sense of belonging neither to the old associations nor to the new, with accompanying feelings of stress, loss, and bewilderment. In the final stage, incorporation, the student faces the challenges of finding and adopting new norms; in other words, learning the ropes.

The notion of social and academic integration--based on the interactions of the individual, the institution, and the environment--can in part provide a broad framework for understanding the transfer experiences of students. Common to all of the conceptualizations on student persistence is the theory that students bring with them a series of characteristics and experiences that interact with the institution, resulting in either congruence and adaptation or incongruence and departure. Students transferring from community college to university must negotiate new roles and relationships to become fully integrated into the new institution. The period of negotiation is commonly referred to as a transition period--a period of uncertainty in which students alter their routines and relationships and adapt to a new environment.

The conceptual model (Figure 1), a blend of the persistence and transition theories, could be classified as an interactive model in which the students bring personal experiences and characteristics (self), and through their interactions and experiences with the institution, work through a period of transition, hopefully culminating in incorporation into the university and persistence until the degree is completed.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Methodology

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of transfer students in a collaborative baccalaureate nursing program in Ontario, Canada. The primary question informing the study was the following: What is it like to begin a baccalaureate degree at a community college and then transfer to university to complete the degree in a collaborative nursing program? Secondary questions included the following:

1. How do students describe their experiences during the transition from community college to university?

2. How does the university experience differ from the community college experience?

3. Do students from each of the community colleges share common experiences at the university?

4. Given the structure of the university-level curriculum, are students building on the knowledge previously acquired from community colleges?

5. Do students feel prepared for the transfer and transition process?

6. Are students satisfied with the program and their decision to transfer?

7. What would students recommend to improve the transfer process?

8. What factors would affect the student's overall experiences?

Although primarily naturalistic, this study combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. There has been increasing interest in combining qualitative and quantitative research methods as researchers recognize that although each paradigm has inherent strengths and weaknesses, a combination of methods maximizes the strengths of each. Locke, Spirduso, and Silverman (1993) maintain that research combining qualitative and quantitative designs had contributed to program evaluation, organizational studies, and policy development. Steckler and McLeroy (1992) support the use of integrated research design in health education.

Utilizing a naturalistic approach described by Lincoln and Guba (1985), I gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to elucidate the feelings, experiences, and satisfaction of third-year nursing students in a collaborative articulated program. This approach focuses on how human beings make sense of their experiences, and it stresses a natural setting, emergent design, purposeful sampling, direct personal engagement, and continuous checks with the sources of data. The proposed conceptual model introduced in the literature review was compared to the students' experiences and modified to represent the experiences of students transferring from community college to university.

The selected students in this study are the third-year nursing student population at a large urban university in Ontario. These students had successfully completed Years 1 and 2, at one of three community colleges, and transferred to the university to complete Years 3 and 4. The university can be described as a large urban multicultural commuter university (greater than 20,000 students) located in a large city. Each of the community college partners is located in a more rural monocultural setting.

In the first phase, a questionnaire was distributed to these students. The theoretical basis supporting the researcher-designed instrument and draft interview guide stemmed from the review of the persistence and transition literature. Questions were linked with the research questions to ensure validity of the questions. Prior to implementation, a pilot study with third-year collaborative baccalaureate students from a previous cohort pre-tested the instrument's reliability and validity. The questionnaire collected demographic data including academic performance, posed questions requiring responses on a Likert scale with space for comments, asked for completion of sentences, and provided an opportunity for students to add comments about anything they deemed important to the transfer process.

After the study was introduced and the consent process reviewed during class time, students were encouraged to complete the survey. Students were asked to indicate on the questionnaire whether they were interested in participating in phase two of the study.

Fifty-four students responded to the questionnaire (a response rate of 55.1%). Of those, 29 indicated an interest in further participation from which a subgroup of 13 students, selected through purposeful sampling, was interviewed. Students were selected from a variety of backgrounds to capture the full breadth of experience.

In the second phase, open-ended in-depth interviews with a smaller subgroup of volunteer third-year nursing students were conducted. The set of guide questions, developed after analysis of the questionnaire responses, was used to elicit answers about the students' transfer experiences. Further questioning was employed to discover and understand the experience of transferring from community college to university. The interview was conducted at a place of the students' choice off-campus. Most interviews took from 90 to 120 minutes and were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. A follow-up interview was conducted by telephone. Participants were asked both to clarify and to add any reflections.

The quantitative data from the questionnaires were entered in the analysis program, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), to generate descriptive statistics such as percentages and means for each of the questions and demographic data. Tests for comparing means (t test and ANOVA) were used, for example, to compare experiences from different community colleges, commuter versus non-commuter, self-reported grade point average (GPA), and satisfaction. Qualitative data gathered from the surveys were entered into the NUD*IST software to sort and classify common experiences. As patterns of data emerged, codes were developed to manage the data and to place the material into units of analysis.

After transcribing and reviewing the transcripts from the in-depth interviews, themes were developed to give structure to the student experiences. "Themes are only fasteners, foci, or threads around which phenomenological description is facilitated" (Van Manen, 1997, pp. 90-91). Themes were shared with and validated by the interview participants. A data display was developed to identify the connections between the observations and experiences to understand the experiences of transfer students.

Major Findings

Participants ranged in age from 20 to 48 years with a mean age of 26 years. Corresponding to the nursing population, the gender is overwhelmingly female (93% of the participants). The educational background varied from 44.4% with a high school background, 24.1% with a community college background, and 31.5% with some university background or a university degree. Altogether, 68.5% of the participants did not have any previous university experience.

Reporting on their grade report average (GPA) during the first semester in comparison to their community college GPA, the majority of students reported that their GPA declined (64.8%) with 27.8% reporting no change. Four students (7.4%) reported that their GPA increased. Similar results were accounted for during the second semester of study, with some improvement, however. For example, only 51.8% reported a decline, a 13% improvement from the first semester.

From the remaining demographic data, the profile of the typical student was a single white female 23 years old. Choosing not to move closer to the university to attend university, she has decided to commute and considers doing so a burden. She had a high school education prior to entering the program. She chose the collaborative program before entering the community college due to the expectations of financial savings from attending community college for 2 years. While at the university, she works at a paid job for 11 to 15 hours per week. After transferring to the university, she experienced a decline in her GPA, a decline which persists into second semester.

Participants were asked to rate their transition from community college to university on a scale of I (very difficult) to 7 (very easy). Participants indicated a neutral response (Mdn = 4; M = 3.75); however, there was wide variability, as the transition was rated from very difficult to very easy. Participants were then asked to agree or disagree to 11 statements about their experiences related to transferring to university from community college. Students indicated that they agreed with the statement: "I am satisfied with the collaborative articulated nursing program when I take everything into account." The participants had a slightly stronger agreement to the statement: "I would recommend the collaborative articulated nursing program to a friend."

For most of the items there is wide variability (see Figure 2). Participants indicate that they do not have a satisfactory social life and that the transition was not smooth. Leaning towards agreement with the statements, participants agreed with statements relating to overall satisfaction, similar caring philosophy, recommendation of the program to others, and adaptation to the university. The strongest agreement rating was satisfaction with the decision to transfer to university.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Generally, the questionnaire participants found the transfer to university and the transition period difficult. However, they were generally satisfied with their decision to transfer, had adapted to university life, and would recommend the program to a friend. On the other hand, participants were disappointed with the quality of their social life.

The relationships between the demographic data and the ratings on ease of transition, satisfaction, and other related items were analyzed. Based on a statistical analysis utilizing t-tests and ANOVA, the participants' ratings on the Likert scale were not related to the community college of origin, age, racial or ethnic profile, hours of work per week, or burden of commuting. However, some groups showed significant differences in means. Participants with dependents reported lower satisfaction with social life. Students with university experience indicated an easier transition to university, whereas those who moved closer to the university reported more difficulty.

Qualitative data collected from the qualitative portion of the questionnaire and the in-depth interviews were analyzed separately with two sets of emergent themes. To simplify further discussion, the themes were collapsed into one group of six themes: 1) transition stress, 2) geographic relocation 3) academic shock, 4) professional transformation, 5) social life, and 6) adaptation.

Transition Stress

Nursing students transferring from community college to university perceived the event as a transition, one in which their routines, roles, beliefs, assumptions, and relationships changed (Schlossberg et al, 1995). The theme of transition stress describes the difficulty and stresses experienced by students during the first few months after transfer as they negotiated the new expectations, curriculum, nursing ideology, and geography. Their experiences were typical of the stress associated with any life transition; in this case the life event is the transfer from community college to university. The transition experience was different for each nursing student as illustrated in the contrasting experiences described by two students as follows:

   I do not think the transition could have been any smoother. Just
   the fact that you were at a completely different school, new
   faculty and students made it somewhat "rougher" than staying at the
   [community] college program. I do not think that people realize how
   difficult it actually is to transition from a [community] college
   curriculum to a university curriculum. At one point I was on the
   verge of dropping out and giving up--I believe that was
   October--but was essentially talked out of it by a professor who
   provided encouragement, support, and flexibility. I needed to get
   to a level--academically--where I felt comfortable to continue.

The only specific student characteristics related to the level of difficulty experienced are prior university experience and having the responsibility for dependents. Students who had previously attended university rated the transition as less difficult than did students with only a high school background. It is clear that students with prior university experience integrated more easily into university life, even if their original attendance was at a different university.

Students who moved closer to the university rated their transition as significantly more difficult than those students who did not move. These students faced multiple transitions, such as adjusting to new living arrangements in addition to transferring and becoming familiar with the university. Thus moving closer to the university to avoid commuting did not appear to ease the transition but rather compounded the adjustment.

The time period that marked the transition period was from several weeks to six months. As they emerged from the transition period, students expressed the sense that the struggles and challenges they encountered made them stronger and better prepared for their professional careers and the chaos of the modern-day health care system.

Geographic Relocation

Common to the experiences of almost all of the informants was geographical relocation. Geographical relocation included adjustment to a new campus as well as dealing with the demands of commuting, learning new policies and procedures, understanding the university culture, coping with increased financial demands, and finding available learning resources. The descriptions of the university campus in this study were similar to the Mexican-Americans' perceptions of a university studied by Attinasi (1989). Both groups of students, virtually unanimously, focused on the size, distance, and complexity of the university campus. Consumed with negotiating the new campus in the first few weeks after transfer, the nursing students stated they felt overwhelmed but adapted quickly; generally it was a short-lived phenomenon. However, the increased financial burden faced by some students continued to persist and would likely continue until graduation from university.

Academic Shock

Academic shock refers to students' negative experiences related to their academic abilities in the new environment. Some nursing students felt that their knowledge was deemed to be inadequate by the university's faculty. Students were shocked when they realized they had to live up to the increased faculty expectations and increased workload.

   The first paper was brutal--I was so used to getting 'A's ... I
   really worked on this paper for over a week but it was just not
   knowing how they were going to mark and what they were looking
   for--it was frightening to me and I felt that I had worked really
   hard on this paper and I got a 'C'--I almost fell off my chair. I
   wanted to die--I am failure--I am not going to do very well here.

The majority of students reported a drop in GPA that persisted into the second semester. This phenomenon, commonly referred to as transfer shock, has been widely documented in numerous studies on transfer students (Diaz, 1992; Hills, 1965). Because this study was not a longitudinal design following students to graduation, it is not known whether the students' marks rebounded to pre-transfer grades as reported in the literature by Dennison, Forrester, and Jones (1982). Nonetheless, students reported some improvement in their second semester grades as the percentage of students reporting a decline in GPA from community college decreased from 64.8% to 51.8%.

Reeling from lower academic performance compared to their pretransfer community college experiences, students sensed a loss of confidence in their own academic abilities. Many initially internalized the problem. Other students hypothesized that they were underprepared for the academic rigors of the university environment. The pedagogical practices and overall curriculum philosophy were consistent from community college to university, but difficulties emerged as the nursing students experienced an increased course workload, a greater volume of readings, and higher expectations related to critical thinking, critical reflection in journals, and scholarly writing. Students in this study did not experience alienation from the university faculty or a competitive environment as re ported in other studies on student transfer. In this study, the close relationships with faculty, who supported and nurtured learning, continued after transfer. These interpersonal relationships and the cooperative environment supported in the classroom sustained the students while they adapted and learned how to manage at the university. The transpersonal relationships, vital to teaching and learning, were part of the caring philosophy embraced by both the community college and university faculty.

Professional Transformation

Compared to the other major themes, the professional transformation students undergo during the university portion probably took the longest to adjust to and incorporate. Among the emergent themes, it is the most difficult to describe. Already socialized to the profession of nursing in community college and with a sense of occupational identity, students had to synthesize an expanded theory base that challenged and transformed their perspective of nursing and their own personal values and attitudes. Many felt that they did not have the theoretical background and vocabulary to understand the ontological shift from functioning in the nursing-caring paradigm to transforming nursing and health care, requiring critical self-reflection and the questioning of the assumptions underlying current nursing practice. They had already learned at community college how to function quite effectively in health care settings and were now called to question the system in which they were functioning. They felt that they had moved from a practical bedside nursing framework to a more theoretically based community perspective. They felt disenchanted; their beliefs were challenged and undermined. Called upon to transform their own identities as nurses and adults, they became bewildered, overwhelmed, and uncertain of themselves.

   I just didn't get it until one day and ah hah! I suddenly clued
   into the whole community aspect ... this is what
   [the university] is trying to teach us to look at the whole
   broader sense of health, you know the sociopolitical sense of
   health and the environmental determinants ...

For most students, integrating the new theoretical concepts marked a professional transformation as well as an end to the transition period for many.

Social Life

Students were not satisfied with their social life. This was particularly true for students with dependents, frequently single mothers. Although the nursing students did not boast of a satisfying social life at the community college, it was even more dismal at the university. Loneliness appeared to be particularly acute for students who transferred without their community college-nursing peers. Without exception, they did not become involved in university life, did not participate in social clubs, or join in any other extracurricular activities. The increased academic demands, increased financial pressure, and time spent commuting all led to a time crunch that allowed for little to no social life. Additionally, the students were on campus only 2 days a week with a very tight schedule. The only socialization took place in the classroom as students left the campus immediately after classes. As the relationships in the classroom strengthened, students identified that they were no longer acutely lonely; however, their social lives were far from satisfactory. Commuting students in a car pool reported that the car-mates developed particularly close and satisfying relationships that supported them as they faced the many challenges in the first months at university. Any outside social activities the nursing students participated in extended from those initiated during the community college portion of their program. This was also true for those students who moved closer to the university and for those who did not consider their commute a burden. This limited interaction does not, however, serve to meet all of the social needs of the students.

Adaptation

Adaptation describes the students' development of new skills and relationships to navigate the new geography, culture, and institutional policies and procedures. More than just locating a parking spot or class location, students felt challenged by the increased requirements, expectations, and workload. They worked on continuing to build their academic and time management skills begun at community college. Students stated that they primarily relied on their peers and faculty to help them develop and strengthen their academic abilities. In this study, the university faculty supported students in the collaborative nursing program by making themselves available to students for extra help, adapting the curriculum as necessary, encouraging students who were floundering, and solving problems as they emerged. On the other hand, university services did not play an important role in assisting the students. Although the nursing students were aware of writing centers and other university resources, they did not use these support services.

Students re-prioritized their time and energy to manage the increased academic workload and, in some cases, work demands. Social commitments, if any, decreased. Those who also faced increased work commitments to manage the financial burden required the greatest management of their schedule.

These nursing students were highly motivated and driven to complete their baccalaureate degree as they had already dedicated 2 years to their studies. The transfer issues described in this study, although described as overwhelming, were not going to deter them from their goal of achieving a degree in nursing. Students were proud of their accomplishments and of successfully navigating the chasm of transfer. Several referred to a maxim attributed to Nietzsche: "That which does not kill me makes me stronger!"

   ... it was a living hell and if I didn't go through that and if it
   was an easy process I don't know what I would be today. I don't
   know if I would be as hard-working or as dedicated or as
   committed to getting my degree as if it had been an easy ride. If
   it had been really smooth and if the expectations of university
   weren't as high or the same as college then no I wouldn't have
   matured or evolved as a person because it would have been the
   same old thing ...

Discussion

The theme of transition stress describes the difficulty and stresses experienced by students during the first few months after transfer as they negotiated the new expectations, curriculum, nursing ideology, and geography. Their experiences are typical of the stress associated with any life transition; in this case the life event is the transfer from community college to university. Their experiences parallel the process described by Schlossberg et al. (1995) when adults alter their roles and routines upon return to post-secondary education.

The barriers that students faced during the geographical relocation are well documented in both the American and Canadian literature on students transferring from community college to university (Andres, 2001; Davies & Casey, 1999; Green, 2001; Nolan & Hall, 1978). For example, Andres (2001) uncovered the overwhelming sentiment expressed by students that they were confused and unprepared for the new university culture. However, nursing students did not experience the same difficulties described by Andres (2001) when negotiating the transfer of credits from community college to university as the nursing students in this study were given block credit for the first 2 years at community college.

The pedagogical practices and overall curriculum philosophy were consistent from community college to university, but difficulties emerged as the nursing students experienced an increased course workload, a greater volume of readings, and higher expectations related to critical thinking and critical reflection in journals and scholarly writing. Andres (2001) and others (Townsend, 1993; Vaala, 1989) have also documented similar findings among transfer students who perceived the university portion of their studies to have heavier workloads, higher academic standards, more assignments, and more challenging course content.

The professional transformation experienced by students is an exemplar of an evolution in thinking, reflective of perspective transformation as described by Brookfield (1995) and Mezirow (2000) in which the learner's thinking, values, and beliefs are challenged, thereby evolving into a new understanding and integration of diverse concepts. This transformation allowed the nursing students to function at a higher and more theoretical level. Because this study is exclusive--in that it only examines the experiences of transfer students from one integrated vocational program--the theme of professional transformation is unique and not documented in any other studies on transfer. The nursing literature on diploma-prepared nurses returning to post-secondary institutions for their baccalaureate degree documents a similar phenomenon in which the registered nurse's existing knowledge base is challenged and new theories, attitudes, and roles are acquired (Huston, Shovein, Damazo, & Fox, 2001; Maltby & Andrusyszyn, 1997; Nesler, Harmer, Melburg, & McGowan, 2001).

Social integration, considered to be essential by Tinto (1975, 1988, 1993) for persistence in college, is not typical of commuter students who have or who avail themselves of fewer opportunities to integrate themselves into the university social system (Tierney, 1992). The findings from this study support the later work by Tinto (1997) who claims that the limited social integration at university occurs within the classroom rather than during extracurricular activities.

In spite of the many difficulties, the nursing students adapted to the new environment through the development of new skills and relationships. Townsend (1995) found in her study that transfer students relied on their own resources, becoming fairly self-reliant and able to survive with minimal assistance from the university. A strong commitment to their studies and the profession, described as essential to a successful transition by Tinto (1975, 1993), helped students to navigate the stresses associated with transition and, in this study, with transferring from community college to university.

What was learned from this study? First, transferring to university in a collaborative program was not as smooth or as easy as planned for by the faculty and as anticipated by the students. The envisioned seamless transfer from community college to university was not realized. A collaborative curriculum and common philosophy of teaching and learning does not guarantee a smooth transition. Secondly, transferring from community college to university, even in a collaborative program, causes significant stress for students. At times, it was extreme enough that many students considered dropping out or attempting to transfer back to the community college to complete their diploma (this option was only available until the diploma exit was phased out). Finally, although the nursing students in this study adapted to their new environment, they had not, even after 7 months, become fully acculturated into the mainstream of the university. They had progressed through the courses, lived up to the increased expectations, grown in their personal and professional lives, and developed new relationships, but they had not participated in any activities outside the classroom. The university provided the curriculum, professors, and classrooms, but it was not part of their lives outside their studies. A conceptual model was developed to illustrate visually the emergent themes and the relationships and connections between them (see Figure 3).

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

The data display (Figure 3), developed from the emergent themes, illustrates a process where students separated from the community college moved through a period of transition stress and adapted to the university. Individual and unique to each student, their experiences varied in terms of personal and external influences. However, student characteristics such as age, gender, race, and hours worked were not as important as previously documented in the literature. Commitment to obtaining the baccalaureate degree was the driving force for most students.

Students did identify that outside stressors such as family illness, moving, prior university experience, life experiences, and having dependents impacted the ease of transition. Reinforcement from successful experiences, such as good marks and positive feedback, eased the transition. In addition, the institutional characteristics influencing the student's experience (illustrated in Figure 1) were subsumed by the geographical relocation theme in Figure 3. The theoretical concepts of social and academic integration as an explanatory model for the transition from community college to university (see Figure 1) did not adequately explain the transition experienced by students in this study. The themes of geographical relocation, academic shock, professional transformation, and social life replaced social and academic integration contributing to transition stress. The theme of social life is not displayed as prominently as the other themes, since students indicated that although social life is important, other themes such as academic shock had a greater impact on their stress.

The central circle of transition stress, highlighted with circular arrows in Figure 3, illustrates the swirling nature of the early weeks and months following transfer in which all the themes interacted to produce transition stress. Each of the themes represented the individuals' experiences to varying degrees. Temporally, geographical relocation and social life were experienced early in the transition, while academic shock and professional transformation impacted students later in the semester and took longer to work through. As students adapted, they moved toward becoming fully incorporated into the role and identity of a university student over a period of several weeks to 6 months. Students who successfully navigated the transition were generally satisfied but expressed the sense that the transfer from community college to university could have been much smoother. The double-ended circular arrow below the adaptation themes represents the varying levels of satisfaction measured in the questionnaire.

Implications for Future Research and Practice

This paper concludes with recommendations to ease the transition of the students from community college to university, limitations, suggestions for future study, and some final thoughts. Several logical suggestions or implications for practice are offered from the lessons learned in this study for future collaborative programming. Caution must be used, however, as identical circumstances and conditions, from which the implications for practice emerged, are usually not found in the naturalistic setting. Although the recommendations are directed at the partners in the collaborative nursing program, the more general recommendations may be applied to any collaborative program.

As equal partners in the collaborative nursing program, the university and the community colleges must consider the issues and students' concerns surrounding transfer from community college to university. The transition from community college to university does not need to be so overwhelming that it distracts students from the most important academic activity: learning. Steps should be taken to develop a more cohesive and seamless curriculum. Additionally, learning outcomes should be developed jointly and structured so that expectations are increased from year to year and are standardized between institutions. To improve communication among the partners, opportunities should be offered for university students and faculty to visit the community colleges regularly to discuss the transition process and to disseminate information. To support faculty, scholarly learning groups composed of both university and different community college faculty to participate in ongoing dialogue on nursing and nursing education should be established. Students should be invited to participate in the discourse. Mechanisms for faculty exchange should be developed to encourage cross pollination and communication.

To support students, a comprehensive transfer orientation program, located at the university, should be developed with a series of 2-hour workshops at the university prior to transfer. Topics could include but are not limited to writing, library resources, math, policies and procedures, finances, and time management. By anticipating the academic shock associated with the first assignment, faculty should consider reducing the initial impact, such as allowing a rewrite for papers. Faculty could also provide model papers and encourage students to submit drafts. The peer mentoring program should be formalized to facilitate senior students working closely with third-year students. Meetings and support groups with faculty and students should be launched--especially during the first months.

This research will add to the limited Canadian research on the experiences of transfer students in community college-university collaborative programs. Hopefully, the findings from the students' experiences will allow educators better to plan for the transition and make systematic changes to buffer the stresses associated with transfer. Also, it is important to note that this study is unique in the field of research on community college-university transfer as one cohort of students in a professional collaborative program was studied during their transfer year. In particular, collaborative programs in professional fields should pay attention to the theme of professional transformation.

As the flow of students between community colleges and universities increases in Ontario, so does the call for more research on transfer. A longitudinal study following the students into their fourth year and through graduation would serve to deepen the understanding of the transfer, allowing more mature retrospective insights. As the theme of professional transformation was unique to this study, further research exploring how students reframe their knowledge and generate new understandings would help expand on this finding. Replicating this study with a new cohort in the collaborative nursing program and in other transfer programs would serve to strengthen the findings. Moreover, it would provide a vantage point from which to gauge whether many of the experiences are program specific or endemic to the higher education system.

References

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Cherylyn Cameron is the Dean of Degree Studies in the Institute of University Partnerships and Advanced Studies at Georgian College, Barrie, Ontario, Canada. [e-mail]