Pre-licensure nursing students' attitudes toward clinical research, education research, and pedagogical research participation in the United States

Background: Researchers worldwide have found that nursing students tend to have favorable attitudes toward clinical research. However, little is known about their attitudes toward education research and pedagogical research participation.

Objectives: The purposes of this study were to: describe nursing students' attitudes toward clinical research, education research, and pedagogical research participation; explore the association of select demographic and academic factors with students' attitudes; and identify facilitators and barriers of pedagogical research participation.

Design: A convergent mixed-methods design with questionnaire variant was used.

Settings: Pre-licensure students from nursing programs throughout the United States.

Participants: Four hundred and thirty-six pre-licensure students, aged 18 or older, who were active members of the National Student Nurses' Association (NSNA).

Methods: Research participants were recruited using the NSNA e-mail distribution list. Nursing students completed a demographic survey and three instruments that measured attitudes toward clinical research, education research, and pedagogical research participation.

Results: Quantitative findings indicated that nursing students had generally positive attitudes toward clinical research, education research, and pedagogical research participation. Prior experience as a research assistant or a research participant was significantly associated with students' attitudes on all three measures. Factors identified by students to enhance pedagogical research participation were the potential to improve practice, research topic interest, and opportunities for personal and professional development; while time-related concerns were identified as barriers to research participation. Qualitative data supported these findings, and also revealed some negative attitudes toward pedagogical research participation, concerns about current educational practices, and confusion about the definition of education research.

Conclusions: Findings from this study provide nurse educators with students' perspectives of education research, which may be used to develop a student-driven framework to enhance the implementation of pedagogical research. Further research is warranted to more fully understand these phenomena with explicit attention to international students' perspectives.