Academic self-efficacy in undergraduate student nurses in Northern Ireland

ASE has been positively linked in the literature to academic performance and has been the subject of study for several decades. <br><br>The aim of the study was to investigate academic self-efficacy, (ASE), in undergraduate nursing students from all fields of practice of nursing and across all three years of a nursing preparation programme in Northern Ireland with a view to ascertaining how confident they were academically and to identify areas of confidence and/or under-confidence.<br><br>A cross-sectional design was employed using an online self-report questionnaire; the Academic Capacity Scale for Nursing 25, (ACSN25).

Exploratory factor analysis was used to excavate and expose the underlying structure of the collected data. <br><br>One hundred and eight completed responses were recorded, (n = 108) across years one, two and three, from adult, mental health, and children’s nursing.<br>Respondents were academically confident with a mean ASE score of 69.70, (confident). They reported the highest mean ASE score when it came to meeting assignment deadlines, (87.9, extremely confident), and the lowest mean ASE score related to asking questions in lectures, (45, not confident) respectively.