Effectiveness of music therapy on academic performance of nursing students

Background: It has been shown that music has effect on intellectual functions, behavioral aspects, and emotional aspects of students. The present study explores the role of music on these aspects of nursing students. The purpose of this study is to observe the effect of music listening on academic performance. Materials and Methods: Data were collected using a questionnaire. Sociodemographic data, study habits, home-related aspects, teacher-related aspects, and academic performance rating scale was used to analyze the academic performance of the students. Instrumental flute and violin music called Raag Shivaranjani and Raag Mohana were administered to the experimental group using a comfortable head set; it took 10 min for each sample. Music therapy was withheld from the control group. Posttest was conducted on 30th day in both intervention and control group with the same tool to assess the effectiveness of music therapy. Results: Of the 191 participants, intervention arm in the music therapy group (91 nursing students) and in the control group (100 nursing students), the positive findings obtained were that listening to music during studying had positive effects on the concentration of students and improved the academic performance. In the posttest academic performance rating to assess the effectiveness of music therapy, “estimate the percentage of written Nursing Foundation (care plan and case study) work completed (regardless of accuracy) relative to classmates” and “estimate the accuracy completed written nursing foundation (care plan and case study) work (i.e., percent correct of work done)” there were statistically significant changes in academic performances on exposure to music therapy. Conclusions: The current study suggests that a sub-group of students can get benefitted when the music is used as an intervention to improve academic performance. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical knowledge, Practice-based learning and improvement, Interpersonal and communication skills.