A study of the self-esteem of nursing students

Abstract

Background: Everyone has the resources and ability to learn, and the problem of self-awareness, discovering the meaning of things by oneself, discovering one’s interests, needs, and talents through self-evaluation, and self-development is a philosophical concept put forward by contemporary western and oriental thinkers and its theory have been playing an important role until now. Basis of learning is self-awareness and self-discovery; self-esteem is especially important for successful learning. The process of human development and its results largely depend on the individual’s own active participation, self-requirements, and self-esteem. This need for self-awareness, self-respect, and self-confidence is constantly growing throughout a person’s life. At every stage, people think about the meaning of life and search for what is most important to them. Believing that high self-esteem of students lays the foundation for their academic success and becoming competent professionals in the future, we believe that there is a need to learn the level of self-esteem of students, what are the factors affecting it, and how to increase this self-esteem? So, we decided to perform a research study about self-esteem of nursing students of the MNUMS /Mongolian National University of Medical Science/. Aim: To determine the self-esteem of nursing students and to study the factors affecting it. Materials and Methods: A survey was conducted using the self-evaluation questionnaire of Marilyn Sorensen to select students studying in the nursing program of the School of Nursing of NUMS /National University of Medical Science/. The research data has been statistically processed using SPSS-25 statistical software and Microsoft Excel software. Results: The study included 356 (48.6%) undergraduate students and 377 (51.4%) students enrolled in the diploma program of the School of Nursing of MNUMS /Mongolian National University of Medical Science/, and a total of 733 students aged 17-43 participated, with an average age of 21.2. 49 (6.68%) of the surveyed students have very high self-esteem, 55 (7.5%) have above-average self-esteem, 142 (19.4%) have average self-esteem, and 487 (66.4%) have very low self-esteem. Conclusions: 66.4% of students have very low self-esteem, which is probably related to their age and social status, as well as the influence of the environment, family, teachers, and parents. Therefore, at the age when the student’s self-esteem is developing, they need the support of the school, teachers, family environment, parents and friends to improve their self-esteem.