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

Abstract

Background: 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. Objective: To investigate the effect of personality traits and academic self-efficacies of midwifery and nursing students on their malpractice tendencies. Materials and Methods: 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. Results: In the malpractice tendency scale, the students had the lowest score from patient monitoring and equipment safety subscale (x over bar = 40.59 +/- 5.41) and the highest score from the communication subscale (x over bar = 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). Conclusion: 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.