Grit, academic resilience, and mindset of nursing students: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Nursing students engage with the complex health system for competence development. These students are exposed to nerve-wrecking experience in addition to their everyday personal and social challenges. Non-cognitive attributes, namely grit, resilience and mindset can influence students' ability to overcome complexities as they become nurses resulting in academic success and well-being. Insights into the state of non-cognitive attributes among undergraduate nursing students are essential in developing tailor-made educational programmes to enhance their grit, resilience, and mindset.

OBJECTIVES

To describe the undergraduate nursing students' grit, academic resilience, and mindset at a university in South Africa.

DESIGN

A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design.

SETTING

A School of Nursing at a public multi-campus university in South Africa.

PARTICIPANTS

All students (N = 315) registered for the undergraduate nursing programme were invited to participate, and 70 % (N = 221) chose to participate.

METHODS

Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires that included a 7-item demographic survey, the 30-item Academic Resilience Scale (ARS-30) that measures affective, cognitive, and behavioural responses in an educational context, the 16-item Dweck Mindset Scale (DMI) that measures a personal belief about whether intelligence and talent are fixed or amenable to change, and the 8-item Grit-S scale measuring passion for long term goals and perseverance. The collected quantitative data were analysed statistically through the Statistical Analysis Software Version 9.4 computer programme.

FINDINGS

The findings revealed that the participants have normal grit and a growth mindset, but low academic resilience.

CONCLUSIONS

Tailor-made educational programmes that target non-cognitive attributes must integrate interventions that are focused on enhancing academic resilience for undergraduate nursing students.