Satisfaction of Nontraditional Students in Health Sciences: A Causal Comparison Study Investigating Institutional Effectiveness

Nontraditional students have personal obstacles they must overcome in their journey through college. These barriers differ from traditional students and can include feelings of isolation and a sense that their chosen institutions are insensitive and inflexible to the particular nontraditional student needs. In this quantitative, causal-comparative study, the researcher sought to determine if students’ satisfaction, as measured by the Student Satisfaction Inventory, differed based on student status (traditional or nontraditional) and health science program (nursing, dental hygiene, or radiologic technology) enrolled at technical colleges of Georgia. This study was conducted at technical colleges in Georgia. Participants were students from five colleges enrolled in nursing (six traditional and 19 nontraditional students), dental hygiene (20 traditional and six nontraditional), or radiologic technology programs (9 traditional and 7 nontraditional). A factorial Analysis of Variance was used to determine main effects of each independent variable as well as evaluate any interaction effects of traditional and nontraditional and health science program on student satisfaction