Motivational Factors of Nursing Students to Pursue their Studies Amidst Pandemic
Introduction
The global pandemic from Covid-19 has urged several sectors including schools and
Colleges to temporarily close and shift to online classes and modules (Masha'al et al., 2020). As
a study conducted by Mateo (2020), it revealed that one of the setbacks of this COVID-19 is the
conventional schooling frameworks around the world; with high-hazard transmission among
the students, schools briefly shut down as the disease rapidly spreads in various nations. Thus,
education around the world, including the Philippines, has changed drastically from the
traditional face-to-face to distanced learning. It is apparent that medical students, specifically
student nurses, are expected to acquire both theoretical and technical skill in the field of
medicine and health. However with the impending risk imposed by Covid, face-to-face learning
was restricted which was considered a vital part towards a conducive and efficient learning set-
up for student nurses.
Online learning is undoubtedly also considered a whole new experience for the
academic sector, both teachers and the students. A study conducted revealed by (Browning et
al., 2021) revealed the students’ feelings and behaviors towards the impromptu change in their
education and includes: lack of motivation, experiencing anxiety, overwhelmed and stressed, as well as
financial difficulties and knowing someone who fell ill due to COVID-19 as contributors to negative
feelings and behaviors. In addition, another study reported that it is very much important for nurse
educators to provide and guide student nurses with adequate supplemental information and learning
ways to effectively teach nursing students about clinical theories and skills (Fitzgerald & Konrad, 2021).
Moreover, a study also conducted by Lovric et al., (2020) reported that the students expressed dilemma
about having the ability to absorb information and having difficulty concentrating and with
memorization, which then have negatively caused significant impact on their studies and grades.
However, Internet learning has become one of the most viable applications in learning in
this pandemic. Since of internet learning, students can in any case depend on learning a ton through
this application. Despite the fact that there are students that are hesitant to pursue education
during the pandemic in fear of the disrupted education quality, student's academic motivation
intrinsic and extrinsic is high (Sison, E., et al., 2021). Husain (as cited in Bhatt & Bahadur, 2018) that
self-efficacy is relatively related to predictor and determinant of the students’ motivation and
learning. It is also concluded that utilizing the modern and appropriate teaching style for distance
learning as well as time management and enhancing motivation, can at last, effectively lead to
academic achievement (Maraghi et al., 2018). In the study of Gustiani (2020), it was also reported
that the student’s motivation toward the online-based learning was naturally influenced more by
the respondents’ ambition to learn new information and pleasure in encountering new learning
techniques. Thus, their intrinsic motivation is high, and still willing to learn new things.
In relation to this, the ability of nursing students to motivate themselves to learn has
been regarded as a cornerstone to succeed in higher education and completion of credentials
alongside with subsequent one’s profession in order to maintain a level of work satisfaction,
work engagement and to prevent mental exhaustion. (Mäenpää et al., 2018). Motivation can
play a significant role for every nursing student to pursue and finish their studies against all
odds including any unseen enemy that roams throughout the world, which unmistakably the
Covid-19. Moreover, considering that COVID-19 is a pandemic that is a new experience for
everyone, there were no much study and related literature that are relevant in exploring the
nursing student’s motivational factor in pursuing education despite the pandemic. Thus, the
researchers are urged to conduct a study that would determine various motivational factors of
nursing students to pursue their studies amidst the pandemic.
The researchers strongly believe that studying through distance education has a lot of
factors whether beneficial or not to be encountered by the nursing students who want to
pursue their studies without interacting physically just to contain lethal viruses away from their
health. In this paper, the researchers ought to believe that working on this research would be a
helpful study in discussing the factors that the students are encountering in pursuing their
studies while implementing distance learning program amid the pandemic crisis.
The study aims is to explore the nursing students’ motivational factors and how it affects
the respondents to pursue their studies amid pandemic. More specifically, the researchers’
main objectives are as follows: (a.) to explore the different motivational factors of the nursing
students; (b.) to investigate how this different motivational factors affects their studies; (c.) to
evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their motivations to continue and study amid
distance learning modality, and (d.) to investigate the factors to which they tussled during the
COVID 19 pandemic and how it affected their motivations to study.