Honors Program

Honors in Nursing

Date of Award

5-2013

Thesis Professor(s)

Sandy Diffenderfer

Thesis Professor Department

Nursing

Thesis Reader(s)

Lloyd Lee Glenn, Adrianne Flanary

Abstract

There is an increase in uncivil student behaviors in the classroom setting including inattention, lying, cheating, and plagiarism. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive study was to determine behaviors that undergraduate nursing students perceived as uncivil in the classroom. The research question was, “How do undergraduate nursing students perceive uncivil behavior in the classroom?” A convenience sample using cluster sample method of all five undergraduate baccalaureate nursing student cohorts from a College of Nursing in Appalachia were invited to complete the researcher’s edited version of the Incivility in Nursing Education (INE) survey. There were 526 undergraduate nursing students enrolled in the program. Power analysis estimate of sample size was 222 with a 95% confidence interval; 372 students completed the survey which demonstrated an adequate sample. The sample consisted of 276 females (74.2%) and 84 males (22.6%). Participant ages ranged from 19 to 53 years. The majority of students, 333 (89.5%) were Caucasian. The primary behavior that students perceived as uncivil was holding distracting conversations, 285 (76.6%). The most common uncivil behavior experienced by students was acting bored or apathetic, 318 (85.5%). Challenging faculty, 232 (62.4%) was the most common uncivil behavior reported by students. Students perceived academic incivility as a problem, 260 (69.9%). Data from this study support previous findings that incivility in the nursing academic environment is a serious and growing problem. These findings are important because the instructor is responsible for providing a classroom environment that is conducive to learning. Classroom interventions are suggested to provide a healthier learning environment.

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

Included in

Nursing Commons

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