Relationship between individual innovativeness and 21st century skills of nursing and midwifery students: A cross sectional study

Background: Individual innovativeness and 21st century skills are important for students to utilize their knowledge, think critically, follow innovations, use new technologies, take risks and be creative and entrepreneurial. University education can increase nursing and midwifery students' individual innovativeness and 21st century skills. There are a limited number of studies examining the individual innovativeness and 21st century skills of nursing and midwifery students.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between the individual innovativeness and 21st century skills of nursing and midwifery students.

Design: A cross-sectional online study.

Settings: Students in the nursing and midwifery department of a state university located in the west of Türkiye were included in this study conducted between November 2021 and May 2022.

Participants: A total of 748 nursing and midwifery bachelor students were recruited.

Methods: Research data were collected with "Data Collection Form", "Individual Innovation Scale" and "Multidimensional 21st Century Skills Scale". Number, percent, mean and standard deviation were calculated. Independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, and simple linear regression were used in data analysis.

Results: The mean score of individual innovativeness was 67.21±7.86 and the total mean score of the multidimensional 21st century skills scale was 3.92±0.42. A good positive correlation was determined between the individual innovativeness scale total score and the 21st century skills scale total (r=0.736, p<0.01). Individual innovativeness had a predictive effect on 21st century skills.

Conclusions: It was determined that students were inquisitive about adopting innovations. The 21st century skills of the students were found to be sufficient. There was a positive correlation between individual innovativeness and 21st century skills. Nursing and midwifery students, who are health professional candidates, should have individual innovativeness and 21st century skills in order to follow the innovations in the field of healthcare and integrate these innovations into patient care in the future. Developing innovative projects and taking part in innovation-related scientific events and competitions can improve the individual innovativeness and 21st century skills of students.