Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Experiences on how Learning Style Impact Their Medical-Surgical Nursing Cognitive Performance in North-West Nigeria

Background: Learning style can have an impact on the cognitive performance of students in medical-surgical nursing. The medical-surgical nursing course is an important module in the undergraduate nursing program. It is, therefore, appropriate to investigate students’ learning style and their impact on their performance in medical-surgical nursing. Aim: This study was aimed to explore the Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Experiences on How Learning Style impacts their Medical-surgical Nursing Cognitive Performance in North-west Nigeria. Methodology: A qualitative research design was employed. A total of 13 students were interviewed in the study. A purposive sampling technique was used in the recruitment of the study participants Two (2) instruments were used for data collection. The data was transcribed and analyzed manually. Emerging themes relating to the codes were interpreted and presented thematically. Results: The result of the study indicated that the students mostly used the VARK learning styles in various combinations. More than 3/5 of the students perceived their cognitive performance in medical-surgical as very good. Three-quarters of the students also perceived a positive impact of learning style on cognitive performance in medical-surgical nursing. Conclusion: The study concluded that the learning style of undergraduate nursing students is positively related to their cognitive performance in medical-surgical nursing. Recommendations: An interventional study should be carried out to verify the findings of this study further, more lecturers who specialize in medical-surgical nursing should be provided.