Abstract:

INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted to determine individual innovativeness profiles and the barriers to innovativeness in nursing students. METHODS: A total of 277 nursing students studying at two universities in Ankara, Turkey participated in this descriptive study. The data were collected using a socio-demographic data collection tool, the twentyitem Individual Innovativeness Scale, and the Barriers to Innovativeness questionnaire consisting of three dimensions and forty items. Data were evaluated using mean, t-test and One-way ANOVA analyses. RESULTS: The mean individual innovativeness score was 63.92±10.061. Based on this score, students had "a low level of individual innovativeness". Taking the innovativeness categories into account, students were included in the "early majority" category. The individual innovativeness scores of female students (64.36±9.911) were higher than male students (60.59±10.728). According to the students, the greatest barrier to innovativeness was "being unable to access information in an efficient way due to the lack of a foreign language". The majority of the greatest barriers to innovativeness were found in the institutional category. CONCLUSION: The innovativeness profile level of nursing students was low. It is recommended that nursing faculties revise the educational content in nursing schools in order to increase the students’ innovativeness profiles, and more activities should be designed for this goal.

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