Strategies to promote academic motivation in nursing students: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Academic motivation is highly important in nursing education. Providing high-quality nursing care requires students who have motivation to acquire information and skills. However, nursing students lose their motivation gradually during their program. Thus, the present study is aimed at elaborating on the strategies to improve academic motivation in nursing students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted in Saveh University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through focus groups and individual semi-structured interviews with forty nursing students, professors, and lecturers of nursing and midwifery school. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling method. This method is used for the selection of people who have had experience with or are part of the culture or phenomenon of interest. Data analysis was done as a continuous process through conventional qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The strategies to promote academic motivation of nursing students were categorized into four main categories including strategies pertinent to professors (empowering and motivating to improve the quality of teaching), strategies pertinent to students (creating positive attitude toward nursing, empowering, and encouraging academic achievement), strategies pertinent to clinical education (improvement of the quality of clinical training and optimization of the academic and clinical relationships), and strategies pertinent to faculty (providing extracurricular activities, proper curriculum programming, and educational and welfare facilities). CONCLUSIONS: The strategies to improve academic motivation are available in different areas including professors, students, faculty, and clinical education. In general, improving the quality of education and creating positive attitude in nursing students increase their academic motivation.