Effect of Music on the Academic Performance of the Nursing Students

Background: Stressful environment in nursing education exerts a detrimental effect on the academic performance of the students. Music is a coping strategy adopted by the students to reduce stress. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the stressors affecting the nursing students and to assess the effect of music on their academic performance. Material and Methods: An interventional study was conducted among 40 undergraduate first year nursing students in a private college in Puducherry. The stressors of the students were assessed using the Presumptive Stressful Life Events Scale. The students were randomly divided into music intervention (18 students) and non-music intervention (22 students) groups. The intervention group listened to Bilahari Raga for 30 min daily before the study hour for a month. The theory marks of the students before and after intervention were compared. Results: The major stressors reported by the students were heavy workload (55%), failure in internal assessments (45%), being away from home (82.5%) and debt incurred for their studies (72.5%). Significant increase (P=0.002) in theory marks was observed in the music group compared with the non-music group. Conclusion: Music is preferred by the students to cope with stress. Large-scale studies are needed to ascertain the effect of music on the academic performance of the students.