Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Shedding light on the causes of academic procrastination among nursing students: A qualitative descriptive study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Fatemeh Ghaffari
. Sepideh Mohammadi
. Tajmohammad Arazi 1
. Afsaneh Arzani
. Flora Rahimaghaee 2

1 Department of Nursing and Operating Room, Neyshabur University of Medical Sciences, Neyshabur, Iran

2 Department of Educational Science, Faculty of Nursing, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Iran

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Academic procrastination is a complex phenomenon and a common behavior among
nursing students. Due to procrastinating behaviors, students cannot show their real performances in
learning processes. In order to stop this behavior, it is crucial to know the most common causes of
procrastination in the first place. The aim of this study was to identify a variety of different possible
factors influencing academic procrastination among nursing students.
MATERIALS AND METHOD: A qualitative study method with the content analysis approach was
conducted from October 2019 to March 2020. Participants were 67 nursing students and 8 nursing
educators from 3 nursing schools in Iran. Face‑to‑face semi‑structured interviews and focus group
discussions were used for data gathering. An inductive approach to content analysis was used for
data analysis.
RESULTS: Five categories and 24 subcategories emerged from the data analysis: “student‑related
factors,” “educator‑related factor,” “assignment characteristic‑related factors,” “institution‑related
factors,” and “nursing work‑related factors.”
CONCLUSIONS: The present study showed that nursing students’ academic procrastination can
have a wide range of causes and a comprehensive effort is needed to address the problems. The
result of our study will be useful to nursing students, educators, and nursing administrators in relation
to what constitutes nursing students’ academic procrastination, as well as how nursing education
can play an effective role in decreasing tendency to procrastination.

Keywords

Academic procrastination
baccalaureate nursing
Iran
nursing education
nursing students 
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 4
May 2021
Pages 1-8

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