Do nursing students' attitudes to clinical practice training affect the levels of vocational motivation?

Background: It is extremely important for nursing students to be professionally motivated to train qualified future professional nurses. Students' vocational motivation is affected by their experiences in clinical and academic learning environments.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the vocational motivation levels of nursing students and their attitudes toward clinical practice.

Methods: 292 nursing students participated in the cross-sectional, descriptive study. The Student Information Form, Nursing Students' Attitudes Towards Clinical Practices Scale, Motivation Sources and Problems Scale (MSPS) were used to gather the data.

Results: The average score for students' attitudes toward clinical practice was 107.08±18.13, while the total score for MSPS stood at 3.80±0.63. A positive correlation was identified between the attitude toward clinical practice and vocational motivation levels (r = 0.367; p < 0.001). There were positive correlations between the intrinsic motivation (r = 0.572; p < 0.001) and extrinsic motivation (r = 0.58; p < 0.001), and negative correlations were observed between the negative motivation (r = -0.324; p < 0.001) and the attitude toward clinical practice scale. There were positive correlations between belief and expectation (r = 0.492; p < 0.001) and positive approach (r = 0.532; p < 0.001) with the MSPS. In the multiple regression analysis, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, satisfaction with studying nursing, and participation in vocational courses were determined as effective predictors of attitudes towards clinical practice and explained 60.4% of the variance.

Conclusions: The study concluded that nursing students' attitudes toward clinical practices affect vocational motivation. Clinical learning environments should be arranged in a way to increase the motivation level of students towards professional learning.