Learning Factors Affected by Motivation In Nursing Education
What Is Motivation
Motivation, from the Latin word movere, means to set into motion. Motivation is defined as “an internal state that arouses, directs, and sustains human behavior” (Glynn, Aultman, & Owens. 2005, p. 150) and as a willingness of the learner to embrace learning, with readiness as evidence of motivation (Redman, 2007).
According to Kort (1987), motivation is the result of both internal and external factors and not the result of external manipulation alone. Implicit in motivation is movement in the direction of meeting a need or toward reaching a goal. Motivation is the desire to reduce some drive (drive reduction). Hence, satisfied, complacent, and satiated individuals have little motivation to learn and to change.
Lewin (1935), an early field theorist, conceptualized motivation in terms of positive or negative movement toward goals. Once an individual’s equilibrium is disturbed, such as in the case of illness, forces of approach and avoidance may come into play. Lewin noted that if avoidance endured in an approach avoidance conflict, there would be negative movement away from a goal.
His theory implies the existence of a critical time factor relative to motivation. This time factor, however, is generally not a serious consideration in motivational models of health behavior or motivational research.
Nursing Educator Role to Induce Motivation In Learner
Ideally, the nurse educator’s role is to facilitate the learner’s approach toward a desired goal and to prevent untimely delays. For example, nursing staff may request an in service program about evidence based practice. The in service nurse educator may delay this request to the point that the staff loses interest in the topic.
Although un timely delays may be beyond the control of the educator, every effort should be made to capitalize on the staff’s desire and readiness to learn. Maslow (1943) developed a theory of human motivation that is still widely used in the social sciences. The major premises of Maslow’s motivation theory are integrated wholeness of the individual and a hierarchy of goals.
Acknowledge the complexity of the concept of motivation, Maslow noted that not all behavior is motivated and that behavior theories are not synonymous with motivation. Many determinants of behavior other than motives exist, and many motives can be involved in one behavior. Using the principles of a hierarchy of needs physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization Maslow noted the relatedness of needs, which are organized by their level of potency.
Some individuals are highly motivated, whereas others are weakly motivated. When a need is quite well satisfied, then the next potent need emerges. An example of the hierarchy of basic needs is the powerful need to satisfy hunger. This need may be met by the nurse assisting the poststroke patient with feeding. The nurse-patient interaction may also satisfy the next most potent needs, those of love/belonging and esteem.
Relationships exist between motivation and learning: between motivation and behavior; and among motivation, learning, and behavior. Each theory presented in this chapter attempts to address the complex and somewhat elusive quality of motivation.
Motivational Factors In Nursing Education
Factors that influence motivation can serve as either incentives or obstacles to achieving desired behaviors. Both creating incentives and decreasing obstacles to motivation pose a challenge for the nurse as educator. The cognitive (thinking processes), affective (emotions and feelings), and psychomotor (skill behavior) domains as well as the social circumstances of the learner can be influenced by the educator, who can act as either a motivational facilitator or blocker.
Motivational incentives, which are those factors that influence motivation in the direction of a desired goal, need to be considered in the context of the individual. What may be at motivational incentive for one learner may be a motivational obstacle to another. For example. a nurse assigned to work with a woman who is elderly may be motivated to care for her when other staff nurses on the unit hold older adults in high regard.
Another nurse may be motivation blocked by the same emotional domain because previous experiences with older women, such as a grandmother, were unrewarding. Facilitating or blocking factors that shape motivation to learn can be classified into three major categories, which are not mutually exclusive:
1. Personal attributes, which consist of physical, developmental, and psychological components of the individual learner.
2. Environmental influences, which include the physical and attitudinal climate.
3. Relationship systems, such as those of significant other, family, community, and teacher-learner interaction.
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