Perceptions and attitudes of academic nursing students to research

Tel Aviv University students' perceptions of nursing research activities were examined. Specifically, the research concentrated on attitudes, role perception, ability and behavioural intention to perform research in the future. It was found that nurses in all stages of their academic studies, viewed research activities favourably on all four measures. Differences, however, were shown on the subjects' rating of their ability to perform research, their attitudes and their intentions to engage in research activity, according to their job level and academic level. No differences were found on the four measures when examined by work domain or clinical area. The multiple regression analysis showed that the best predictor of the intent to do research was the perception of ability, followed by the perception of research as part of the nursing role and the subjects' attitudes towards research.