Spotlight on noncognitive skills: Views from nursing students and educators

Background: Noncognitive skills have a considerable role in influencing nursing students' performance in clinical and educational settings. Understanding how nursing students and educators perceive noncognitive skills is important given the broad classifications of noncognitive competencies.Objective: This study sought to examine nursing students' and educators' perception of noncognitive skills.Design: This study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach.Setting: This study was conducted virtually via Zoom in one university in Singapore.Participants: Purposive sampling through a maximum variation technique was used to select 35 nursing students and 12 educators.Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted through eight virtual face-to-face focus group discussions. Interviews were audio- and videorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed through thematic analysis.Results: The participants stated that individual and interpersonal skills contribute to one's noncognitive skills. Two themes emerged from the participants' narratives: (1) the ability to manage oneself and (2) social interactions with others. The first theme describes the various individual characteristics such as growth mindset, adaptability, resilience, and emotional regulation. The second theme describes the importance of empathy and meaningful relationships as types of non-cognitive skills.Conclusions: The findings of this study provide the basis for the development of noncognitive assessment tools by educators. In addition, they pave the foundation for the curation of future programs that promote the noncognitive skills of nursing students. Hospital-based educators may use these findings to curate suitable programs for improving the noncognitive abilities of nurses.