Students who select healthcare education enter an environment that can be different from general liberal arts education. There is a rigor and prescription that is unique to healthcare education curriculum. This study examined how student learning engagement may vary for students at differing stages of their healthcare education and whether or not students have no plans, plan to, or have already participated in a clinical healthcare internship.

This research study was conducted at a small, private, not-for-profit, non-residential, Catholic affiliated healthcare college in the Midwest. The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) was used to ascertain if differences existed among the five established benchmarks of student engagement for students who have no plans, plan to, and have participated in a clinical healthcare internship. The nature of the clinical environment offers students an informal curriculum which gives them greater flexibility in developing learning opportunities (Brown et al., 2010). Taking advantage of these opportunities requires motivation on the part of the student and was the basis for grounding this study in self-determination theory (Reeve, 2012).

Since a community college tool was used at a private, special focus institution this study also looked at institutional reports provided by CCSSE to reveal any differences between the institution researched, other small colleges and the 2008 CCSSE cohort. Analysis of variance was applied to determine if differences existed within each benchmark for the groups of students who have not, nor plan to, plan to or have participated in a clinical healthcare internship.

The results revealed that the institution researched demonstrated greater engagement in the benchmarks of Active and Collaborative Learning and Academic Challenge, and less engagement for the benchmark Support for Learners, when compared to other small colleges and the 2008 CCSSE cohort. The results also revealed that students who have not, nor plan to participate in a clinical healthcare internship are significantly less engaged in the benchmarks of Student Effort and Academic Challenge. The results demonstrate a need to identify students with no plans to participate in a clinical healthcare internship early on and actively support the development of academic goals.