Investigating the Effect of Personality Traits and Academic Self-efficacies on Malpractice Tendencies in Health College Students.

Abstract

Prevention of malpractice is crucial for health care professionals since it could lead to morbidity and mortality. Personality traits of students, being health care professional candidates affect their academic self-efficacies and malpractice tendencies. To investigate the effect of personality traits and academic self-efficacies of midwifery and nursing students on their malpractice tendencies. The study was conducted with a total of 437 midwifery and nursing students studying at two universities between May and September 2019. The form of sociodemographic characteristics, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Academic Self-efficacy Scale, and Malpractice Tendency Scale were used to collect the data. In the malpractice tendency scale, the students had the lowest score from patient monitoring and equipment safety subscale (x¯ = 40.59 ± 5.41) and the highest score from the communication subscale (x¯ = 22.78 ± 3.01). In the personality inventory, they were found to have the lowest score from the psychoticism subscale and the highest score from the extraversion subscale. Their academic self-efficacy mean score was 14.69 ± 3 0.49. Academic self-efficacy score was higher in the 1st year compared to the 4th year (P < 0.05). A negative correlation was found between neuroticism and extraversion subscales and academic self-efficacy (P < 0.01). A negative correlation was found between malpractice tendency and academic self-efficacy (P < 0.01). It was observed that neuroticism and extraversion personality traits in students were found to be associated with low academic self-efficacy and increasing malpractice tendencies. Investigation of academic self-efficacy and malpractice tendencies of the students in accordance with their personality traits would contribute to the improvement, arrangement, and updating of educational curricula.