title: Self-efficacy and relevance of bioscience for nursing, midwifery and healthcare students.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare students' self-efficacy for science, perceived relevance of bioscience to their studies and expectations for academic success and the changes that occur after completing first-year introductory bioscience subjects.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Bioscience is a foundation subject that underpins nursing, midwifery and other allied health courses. Bioscience subjects continue to be source of anxiety for students in those courses. Raising students' self-efficacy and perceptions of the importance and utility of bioscience to practice may be a way of ameliorating students' expectations and confidence in this subject area.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective correlational survey design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students were surveyed in the first semester of first year and the commencement of the second year. Students were drawn from nursing, midwifery, public health and allied health courses. The surveys contained scales for self-efficacy for science, perceived relevance of bioscience to their course and personal expectations for success in their bioscience subject.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety-seven and 82 students completed survey 1 and 2 respectively. Twenty-six surveys could be matched. Self-efficacy increased from survey 1 to survey 2, but expectations for academic success and task value, a measure for relevance, were lower. This was statistically significant for the matched pair sample. Using a mean split, students with high self-efficacy valued science more and had higher expectations for success in their bioscience courses than those with low self-efficacy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Academic success in bioscience, confidence undertaking science tasks and perceiving bioscience as relevant to their course are interwoven concepts that are important for nursing, midwifery and applied healthcare students and ultimately for their professional practice.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Literature indicates practitioners may not feel confident in their bioscience knowledge. Assisting undergraduate students to develop confidence in and perceive the relevance of bioscience to their discipline may ultimately impact on clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK.
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andrew
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McVicar
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK.
authors.forename: Mandana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zanganeh
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medical Science, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK.
authors.forename: Nigel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Henderson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016390:Allied Health Occupations / Q000193:education*; D004506:Education, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008880:Midwifery / Q000193:education*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012586:Science / Q000193:education*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: academic performance; bioscience; expectancy for success; midwifery; nursing; relevance; science; self-efficacy; students