City Research Online

Abstract

Background
Nursing should have a fundamental role in the development of health policies. The current state of the educational system regarding leadership-related skills and political competence in nursing students is a field to explore.

Objectives
To explore Spanish nursing students' perceptions about their political competence.

Design
Cross-sectional study that was carried out between December 2019 and June 2020.

Settings and participants
Students of the Degree in Nursing at the Universitat Jaume I (Spain).

Methods
An ad hoc scale composed of 33 items was designed. Sociodemographic variables of interest for the study were collected, such as participation in organizations. A descriptive analysis of the sample and the scale and a bivariate analysis were carried out.

Results
91.8% (n = 90) of items were answered by women. The 2nd (40.8%, n = 40) and 4th (29.6%, n = 29) courses were the most represented. 29.6% (n = 29) belonged to some association or organization, with sports (31.1%, n = 9), NGOs (17.2%, n = 5), cultural (17.2%, n = 5) and student organizations (13.8%, n = 4) being the most represented. Within these associations, 48.3% (n = 14) of participants claimed to have an active role. Statistically significant differences were observed by course in the Political Knowledge category (p = 0.030). The variables “belonging to an organization” and “having an active role” in it seemed to have more influence on the scale than the rest of the sociodemographic variables.

Conclusions
Learning strategies must benefit from skills and prior experiences of students to strengthen new learning. It also seems to be important to emphasize that the theoretical basis is important, but that promoting civic participation among students can be very relevant for the acquisition of political competence.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
Publisher Keywords:	Political competence, Nursing, Critical spirit, Civic participation, Health policy
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) R Medicine > RT Nursing
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Nursing
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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