Academic Motivation in Nursing Students: A Hybrid Concept Analysis

BACKGROUND: Taking into account the breadth of the concept of motivation and its importance for nursing students, it is imperative to clarify the concept of academic motivation. This study is an attempt to analyze the concept of academic motivation in nursing students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out in 2018 as a combined literature review and qualitative research. Hybrid concept analysis model was employed to clarify the concept at three phases. At theoretical phase, articles indexed in credential databases were searched using keywords “academic motivation” and “nursing.” Totally, 30 articles were analyzed. At fieldwork phase, 12 nursing students were interviewed. At conclusive phase, the findings of the two earlier phases were analyzed. After determining the attributes, antecedents, and consequences, a final definition of academic motivation in nursing student was introduced. RESULTS: Academic motivation has six main attributes including “being an internal process,” “purpose oriented,” “variable,” “unique,” “driving force of educational performance,” and “facilitator of learning and educational achievement.” In addition, antecedents and consequences of academic motivation in the nursing students were revealed and a general definition of the concept was codified. CONCLUSIONS: Academic motivation of nursing students is a broad and multi-dimensional concept that is affected by various personal, family, social, educational, and professional factors. Moreover, it is a factor in achieving academic success, better quality of learning, creativity, academic satisfaction, reduction of anxiety, continuing education, and training competent nurses.