ASCERTAIN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS' AGE, GENDER AND THEIR LEVEL OF ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR

Purpose: The aim of the study is to ascertain the relationship between undergraduate nursing students' age and their level of assertive behaviour. Assertiveness is communicating and expressing your thoughts, feelings, and opinions in a way that makes your views and needs clearly understood by others, without putting down their thoughts, feelings, or opinions. Assertiveness is the ability to express our thoughts and feelings openly in an Honest, Appropriate, Respectful and Direct way. Methodology: The participants were students of 2nd - 5th levels at the Department of Nursing, University of Port Harcourt with a total of 205 participants. The study was a cross sectional descriptive survey design with an adapted structured questionnaire using Rathus Assertiveness schedule instrument with a four point Likert scale of strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree. All statistical analysis was performed using statistical package for social Science (SPSS). Findings: The findings revealed an increased in assertiveness level with students in the 5lh and 4th levels of study being more assertive than the lower levels of study. Age and gender of students did not have any influence on their assertive behaviour.  Chi-square Test of independence was the inferential statistics used to test the hypotheses on whether significant relationships existed between student nurses’ level of assertiveness and their age, gender and year of study with the level of significant 0-05. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that all Nurses should be exposed to assertiveness training so that they can mentor/coach students and it also recommended that assertive behaviour should be included in the curriculum of nursing programme.