Achievement motivation, anxiety and academic success in first year Master of Nursing students

Forty-one first semester master level nursing students from three Canadian universities participated in this descriptive correlational study to identi fy the influence of achievement motivation and anxiety on their academic su ccess. Academic success was determined by their first semester grade point average (CPA). Participants had high achieving tendencies (M = 73.5) and ac ademic ability (M = 81.9), supporting Atkinson's (1957, 1964) achievement m otivation theory which was used as the framework. While state anxiety was n egatively correlated, trait anxiety was the only valid predictor of academi c success. Academic ability and inherent anxiety had a greater potential fo r predicting students who would succeed, which has implications for nurse e ducators, administrators and researchers. However, the need to assess both cognitive and non-cognitive variables to determine master level nursing stu dents' ability to succeed is recommended.