An Empirical Review of Retention: Student-Instructor Relationships with First-Generation Medical Assistant Students

Instructor engagement with first-generation medical assistant students is minimal, resulting in decreased graduation rates. This qualitative descriptive study described instructor perceptions of how student-instructor relationships influence program completion with first-generation medical assistant students. Ten medical assistant instructors participated in semi-structured interviews. Two research questions were addressed questioning instructor perceptions of how student-instructor relationships influence program completion and perceptions of influential engagement strategies supporting program completion with first-generation students in medical assistant programs. The results included college readiness concerns, dynamics of health science education, unique challenges of first-generation students, engagement strategies, and complex factors influencing student engagement.