Attitude to the subject of chemistry in nursing and health science undergraduate students

Nurses require an understanding of biological sciences but may fear chemistry. We quantified attitude to chemistry in both nursing students, and health science students. Attitude toward the Subject of Chemistry Inventory (ASCI) was completed by 114 first year nursing students, and 88 health science students, enrolled in a regional university in Australia. Exploratory factor analysis identified items in the inventory which aligned to a common theme, and Cronbach’s alpha) determined the internal consistency of items which aligned with the identified theme. Two themes identified were named “Cognitive” and “Affective”, both of which are components of attitude. Cognitive refers to thoughts evoked by chemistry, and affective refers to emotional responses to chemistry. Quantifying attitude to chemistry may be used to measure the effects of both teaching chemistry to undergraduate nurses, and to assess the impact of novel strategies to engage undergraduate nurses in the subject of chemistry.