In learning for academic success

In learning for academic success

In learning for academic success, academic motivation and self-efficacy are the guiding factors (Hassankhani et al., 2015). Academic motivation is the energy required to give excellent academic performance. Thus, as a student who is performing in learning activities, being intrinsic or extrinsic motivated is essential. Radi (2013) & Khalaila (2016) concluded that among all nursing undergraduates, the highly motivated students are most likely to perform the highest on their academics.

In the nursing profession, self-efficacy acts as an indicator of predicting the performance of students in clinical practice (Zengin et al., 2014). Self-efficacy is a secondary drive of social learning theory in humans, which gives a person the mastery sense over one’s environment (Kitching et al., 2011). Evidence suggests that increasing self-efficacy fosters confidence and independence. Hence a healthy practice of self-efficacy enhances job satisfaction and intentions towards staying in your nursing career (Duggleby, Cooper & Penz, 2009; Lee & Ko, 2010).

A report from Bandura (1997) indicates that students who have low self-efficacy tend to avoid situations that led them to fail in the past. Experiencing this kind of a situation in nursing classes can lead to an education catastrophe, resulting in the failure in education. It is expected for these kinds of students to have less clinical self-esteem, and which, as a result, contribute towards them leaving their profession.

Students believing in their capabilities maximizes their efforts in different situations. McLaughlin et al. (2008) investigated the relationship between personality and self-efficacy towards the prediction of academic performance and nursing program attrition, whereby the results indicated that higher occupational self-efficacy significantly leads to more top final marks as well as higher program completion rate. Self-efficacy can be increased through verbal validation of students learning, offering positive support to the students, and providing positive feedback to the students (Gibbons, 2010).

Suggestions towards improving the self-efficacy of nursing students should be practiced upon the enrollment of new students into the Baccalaureate Nursing Program. Thereby, students should practice clinical skills in laboratories under the supervision of a clinical educator. Clinical educators should teach their clinical experiences to the nursing students, and students should receive positive feedback. Also, students should be encouraged to work independently but strictly under clinical educator supervision until they reach a certain level of competency.