Academic Self-Efficacy in Student Registered Nurse Anesthetists

Abstract

Advanced learning strategies can help augment academic success in graduate-level academia. The level of synthesis and metacognition required by graduate education is generally not learned at the undergraduate level and presents a need to shift learning styles. While many studies exist on this topic, few directly relate to Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice (DNAP) program students. This scholarly project aimed to determine if education on learning techniques early in a program is associated with improved academic self-efficacy (ASE). Interviews with key players have identified three topics that are particularly useful for building ASE: discovering new study strategies, managing procrastination, and strengthening time management. This scholarly project used a quasi-experimental design with convenience sampling with a maximum sample size of 30 to identify learning strategies suited for the DNAP population. A validated instrument, the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was utilized to assess perceptions of ASE before and after reviewing the module during the first didactic DNAP trimester (see appendix D). Utilizing the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 21, the results provide strong evidence (α=0.05) to reject the null hypothesis, indicating a statistically significant increase in participants' ASE before and after the intervention, as supported by the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test results for both the MSLQ control of learning beliefs component and total scores (p=0.0412 and p=0.0431, respectively). Given the findings, correcting maladaptive educational behaviors and introducing new learning techniques early in the program could have a significant impact on DNAP learning methods.

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Keywords

academic self-efficacy, student registered nurse anesthetist, procrastination, time management, study strategies, study strategy education

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