Background: The aim of the nursing field is to better develop individual, family and community health, to prevent disease, to provide better care for patients, and to relieve suffering. To achieve this goal, it is important that students are eager to learn and have faith that they can succeed. Motivation is key to professional success. The purpose of the study is to find out whether motivation plays a vital role in academic performance of students enrolled for nursing.

Method: Descriptive survey designed was used to assess factors influencing academic performance among 136 nursing students using a non-probability sampling technique. Data was gathered from Structured Academic Motivation Scale which had 60 questions, of which 30 are related to intrinsic factors and 30 are related to extrinsic factors. The study proposal was sanctioned by the ethical committee. Permission was obtained from the concerned authority and from participant also.

Results: The study found positive relationship between student’s motivation and student’s academic performance as the calculated R value is 0.0092. As per the results extrinsic motivational factors (51%) and intrinsic factors (49%) are approximately nearby but the no of highly motivated participants is only 23% and fairly motivated is 77%. This relationship is mutual, which means students who are more motivated do better and student who perform better become more motivated.

Conclusion: Investigator would like to suggest to universities, colleges, faculty, nursing leaders to identify and implement strategies which will help to improve intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among nursing students.

 

Keywords: Motivation, Academic performance, Influencing

INTRODUCTION

Motivation is the reason for people’s actions, desires and needs. Motivation is also one's direction to behavior or what causes a person to want to repeat a behavior. An individual's motivation may be inspired by others or events (extrinsic motivation) or it may come from within the individual (intrinsic motivation). Motivation has been considered as one of the most important reasons that inspire a person to move forward. Academic motivation is a broad term incorporating many concepts studied by scholars to include self-efficacy, determination, resilience, etc.

Student motivation is the element that leads students’ attitude towards learning process. Number of studies has been conducted to probe the role of student motivation toward academic performance and different definitions of students’ motivation have been used by various researches.

A diminished motivation in nursing students, who are involved in human's life, has numerous impacts on public health through the problems it causes for the nurses themselves leading to resources waste [1]. Research shows that a decrease in motivation or lack of motivation in nursing students is one of the major causes for nursing students and staff's turnover [2]. About 15-20% of nursing students annually leave their education in the world, which results in a shortage in nursing personnel and negatively affects educational and professional motivation of other nursing students [1]. Research shows that nursing programs are one of the most expensive high educational programs that impose a high financial burden to educational system and put the health services in shortage of nursing forces [1]. Based on research, 30% of the nursing students study nursing with no motivation.

The aim of the nursing field is to better develop individual, family and community health, to prevent disease, to provide better care for patients and to relieve suffering. To achieve this goal, it is important that students are eager to learn and have   faith   that   they  can  succeed.  Motivation  is  key  to professional success. Motivation is often defined as a need or drive that energizes behavior toward a goal. Academic motivation plays an important role in acquiring knowledge and skills. Although many studies exist that focus on the academic motivation and academic performance of university students studies concentrating on nursing students are few. Investigator felt a need to identify whether motivation plays a vital role in academic performance of students enrolled for nursing.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Conducted a research on influence of motivation on student’s academic performance. The study employed the survey design. The sample comprised of 720 respondents comprising of 640 students and 80 teachers randomly drawn from 16 secondary schools and 15 people from different walks of life. Researcher's self-developed motivational questionnaire (IMOAP) on influence of motivation on academic performance for secondary school students. There was significant relationship between school environment and structure and students' motivation [3]. Performed a cross-sectional correlation study to assess relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement among 252 Tehran University students. 43 item structured questionnaires were used to measure 8 aspects of motivation. The results revealed that students’ academic achievement requires coordination and interaction between different aspects of motivation [4]. Conducted a survey to assess factors affecting the academic performance among female nursing students of Nursing College at Taibah University (Saudi Arabia). Data was collected from 205 under-graduate female nursing students by using interviewing questionnaire and self-reporting questionnaire. The finding of the study suggest majority of the factors affecting academic performance were from personal condition, i.e., feeling sleepy in class and less factor was difficult of breathing and from the study habit the most important factor affecting academic performance was studying only for quiz, teacher has mastery of the subject matter’ had the greatest mean with a very high impact, and the time scheduled is not followed was considered high impact factor of school related aspects [5]. Conducted a cross-sectional Correlational study, out of the total 422 medical students, from 4^th to final year during the academic year 2007-2008, at School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 344 participated in completion of the Inventory of School Motivation (ISM), comprising 43 items and measuring eight aspects of motivation. Results revealed that students' academic achievement requires coordination and interaction between different aspects of motivation [6].

 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Title

A study to assess factors influencing motivation for academic performance among nursing students of selected nursing college.

Overall goal

To identify factors influencing academic motivation in learners of varying abilities at all grade levels.

Objectives

·         To identify intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing motivation for academic performance.

·         To correlate academic motivation with academic performance.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Approach

Quantitative.

Design

Descriptive survey.

Assumption

The study assumes that motivation has effect on academic performance among nursing students.

Hypothesis

H0: Motivation has no relationship with academic performance at 0.05 Level of Significance among nursing students.

Variables

Independent variable: Motivation.

Dependent variable: Academic performance.

Sample

Nursing students at all grades.

Sample size

136

Sampling technique

Non probability purposive.

Tool

Structured academic motivation scale.

Description of tool

Tool comprises of two sections:

Section A: Demographic details (Personal details, 12^th std. percentage).

Section B: Structured rating scale.

Rating scale has 60 questions, of which 30 are related to intrinsic factors and 30 are related to extrinsic factors.

Interpretation of scores

Score of 60 to 140 indicates Demotivated,

Score of 141 to 220 indicates Fairly Motivated,

Score of 221 to 300 indicates Highly Motivated.

Validity and reliability of tool

Tool was given to experts who included 15 from nursing and four psychologists. Changes were made according to expert’s suggestions.

Pilot was conducted on 10 students of other nursing college and 0.85 was the achieved reliability. Thus the tool was found to be valid and reliable.

Ethical clearance

·         The study proposal was sanctioned by the ethical committee.

·         Permission was obtained from the concerned authority of the selected nursing college, Pune.

·         Informed consent was taken from the participants and anonymity of the subjects that was assured by the coding of all data.

Data collection procedure

·         The present study will consist sample size of 100 nursing students.

·         The subjects are students admitted in Sadhu Vaswani College of nursing for BSC, PBBSC and MSC Nursing courses.

a)       Step 1- Students will fill questionnaire (academic motivation scale) based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational aspects influencing academic performance.

b)       Step 2- Students’ academic performance (results) will be assessed.

c)        Step 3- Correlation of academic motivation with academic performance.

DATA ANALYSIS

Objective 1

To identify intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing motivation for academic performance.

Above Table 1 illustrates 51% of participants were influenced with extrinsic factors and 49% were influenced with intrinsic factors for their academic performance (Figure 1).

Table 2 illucates, out of 49% of intrinsic factors 18% of participants had positive attitude towards studies, 16% of participants were feeling competent to achieve good scores in academics and 15% of participants showed interest in scoring good in academics (Figure 2).

Table 3 illucates, out of 51% of extrinsic factors 18% of participants were influenced with student related factors for scoring good in academics, 17% of participants were influenced with Teaching learning activities to achieve good scores in academics and 16% of participants were influenced with teacher related factors for scoring good in academics (Figure 3).

Table 4 explains, majority 77% of participants was fairly motivated, 23% were highly motivated and no one was found to be demotivated (Figure 4).

Objective 2

To correlate academic motivation with academic performance.

On finding correlation between academic motivation and academic performance, it shows a positive correlation as the calculated R value is 0.0092. Although technically a positive correlation, the relationship between the variables is weak (as the value is nearer to zero). This means that as the motivation scores increases so will the academic performance (Table 5 and Figure 5).

CONCLUSION

The study results reveal that the extrinsic and intrinsic factors influence academic motivation of student on academic performance. The study found positive relationship between student’s motivation and student’s academic performance as the calculated R value is 0.0092. As per the results extrinsic motivational factors (51%) and intrinsic factors (49%) are approximately nearby but the no of highly motivated participants is only 23% and fairly motivated is 77%. This relationship is mutual, meaning students who are more motivated do better and student who perform better become more motivated.

Researchers have suggested students with intrinsic motivation are more enthusiastic, self-driven, challenging and feel pleasure in their studies, students tend to use strategies that require more effort and that allow them to process information more strongly. And students with extrinsic motivation try to drag themselves with academic coursework, feel compelled to learn, and always put minimum efforts to attain maximum appreciations, students might do a good job or perform well to achieve a certain reward, but it does not keep them motivated for long-term and overall performance does not change or is consistent. Both Intrinsically and extrinsically motivated students may perform better but the will differ in quality, duration and satisfaction.

Investigator would like to suggest to universities, colleges and faculty, nursing leaders to identify and implement strategies which will help to improve intrinsic and extrinsic motivation among nursing students.

1.       Joolaee S, Mehrdad N, Bohrani N (2006) A survey on nursing student's opinion toward nursing and reasons for giving it up. Iran J Nurs Res 1: 21-28.

2.       Nilsson KE, Warrén Stomberg MI (2008) Nursing students motivation toward their studies - A survey study. BMC Nurs 2008: 7-6.

3.       Christiana IO (2009) Influence of motivation on students’ academic performance Soc Sci 4: 30-36.

4.       Kourosh A, Shahrzad EM, Hamzeh AZ, Hadi P (2011) The relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement students. Proc Soc Behav Sci 15: 399-402.

5.       Elsabagh EEM, Elhefnawy KAH (2017) Factors Affecting the academic performance among female nursing students. Int J Curr Res 9: 46914-46920.

6.       Yousefy A, Ghassemi G, Firouznia S (2012) Motivation and academic achievement in medical students. J Educ Health Promot 2012: 1-4.

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