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| ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2018 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 3 | Page : 278-283 |
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Effectiveness of music therapy on academic performance of nursing students
Arumugam Indira1, Phanishree V Pydimarry2, Kantha Katari3, Rajeswari Hemanathan4, Ranabir Pal5, Amrita Ghosh6, Prashant Bhandarkar7, Priti Patil7, Amit Agrawal8
1 Department of Medical and Surgical Nursing, Narayana Nursing College, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
2 Department of Pediatrics, CMOSGS Hospital, Mysore, Karnataka, India
3 Department of Community Health Nursing, Narayana College of Nursing, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
4 Department of Mental Health Nursing, Narayana College of Nursing, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
5 Department of Community Medicine, MGM Medical College and LSK Hospital, Kishanganj, Bihar, India
6 Department of Biochemistry, Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
7 Department of Statistics, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
8 Department of Neurosurgery, Narayna Medical College Hospital, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
| Date of Submission | 18-Jul-2018 |
| Date of Acceptance | 20-Aug-2018 |
| Date of Web Publication | 24-Dec-2018 |
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Amit Agrawal
Department of Neurosurgery, Narayana Medical College Hospital, Chinthareddypalem, Nellore - 524 003, Andhra Pradesh
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/IJAM.IJAM_32_18
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.
Keywords: Academic performance, music therapy, nursing students
How to cite this article:
Indira A, Pydimarry PV, Katari K, Hemanathan R, Pal R, Ghosh A, Bhandarkar P, Patil P, Agrawal A. Effectiveness of music therapy on academic performance of nursing students. Int J Acad Med 2018;4:278-83 |
How to cite this URL:
Indira A, Pydimarry PV, Katari K, Hemanathan R, Pal R, Ghosh A, Bhandarkar P, Patil P, Agrawal A. Effectiveness of music therapy on academic performance of nursing students. Int J Acad Med [serial online] 2018 [cited 2023 Jun 9];4:278-83. Available from: https://www.ijam-web.org/text.asp?2018/4/3/278/248329 |
| Introduction | |  |
The positive effects of music on the human body was recognized by Greeks more than 2000 years ago and got the place in their curriculum. Yet music therapy has not been not used regularly in modern medicine mainstream treatment protocols even as supplementary note. In modern teaching-learning, music has been used as a method of instruction. Cognitive benefits of active as well as passive music listening often has been regarded as Mozart Effect and need more academic acceptance. It has been recognized that music instructions help to improve few spatial skills in children.[1],[2] However, the actual role of music whether it improves such function still debated and is an area of further research.[3],[4] 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 | | |
The study was conducted in College of Nursing, and the study participants were the 1st year BSc (Nursing) student who was pursuing studies in nursing. Music pieces based on two ragas, “Raga Mohana” which helps to overcome problems of attention deficit and lack of concentration in children and “Raaga Shivaranjani” which helps to enhance the intellect and overcome memory problems composed by His Holiness Dr. Sri Sri Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji, Avadhoota Datta Peetham, Mysore, selected for the study.
The null hypothesis (H0) was that there is no statistical significance between academic performance and music therapy and the alternate hypothesis (H1) was that there is statistical significance between academic performance and music therapy. The demographic variables such as age, gender, religion, education, occupation, and income were collected. Academic performance rating scale consisted of academic performance rating scale with 19 items to assess effect of music therapy on academic performance among student nurses. Score interpretation was “very Good: >80,” good: 80–59, average: 58–39 and poor: 38–19).
The content validity of the tool was obtained from the principal and experts in the field of the nursing department. Addition and deletion in the tool were made according to their suggestions and recommendations. The reliability of the tool was assessed using the split-half method and “r” value was obtained by: R = 2r/1 + r. The tool was tested for feasibility by conducting the pilot study on population comparable to study participants.
The students were informed by the investigator about the nature and the purpose of the study and their written informed consent was obtained. For the first 4 days, data were collected using 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. Raag Shivaranjani and Raag Mohana were administered to the intervention group by using a comfortable headset; it took 10 min for each sample; music therapy was withheld from the control group, but normal activities were carried out as usual for 30 days for both groups. Posttest was conducted on 30th day in participants from both the intervention and control group with the same tool to assess the effectiveness of music therapy. Data collection was done for 4 weeks from March 5, 2018, to April 9, 2018. Time schedule for data collection was from 6.00 AM to 9.00 AM in the morning and 6.00 PM to 9.00 PM in the evening. It took 30 min to collect the sociodemographic data from each sample. Total 191 student nurses were included, and the samples were selected by probability simple random sampling technique by lottery method into control group and intervention group.
Data analysis
Data were tabulated using Microsoft Office Excel 2013 for Windows and Statistical analysis was performed using R Studio (Version 3.5.0) – © 2009-2018 RStudio, Inc. Cross-tabulation and across study variables were checked according to Chi-square test of significance. P < 5% was considered as statistically significant. Responses were clubbed according to predefined qualitative variables. Data analyzed and interpreted according to the objectives and hypothesis of the study using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.
| Results | | |
All the participants were females, belongs to the age group 17–19 years. In both groups none had preexisting hearing problems; one 18-years-old female student was not interested in music.
In study habits, differences across study groups were significant (P < 0.05) for five questions. While for the remaining four questions, there was no statistically significant difference was observed (P > 0.05) [Table 1].
In the pretest of Likert scale assessment Academic performance rating scale assessment compared to posttest after administration of Raag Shivaranjani and Raag Mohana to the intervention group, music therapy was withheld from the control group; however, other normal academic activities were carried out as usual for next 30 days for both groups. In the posttest academic performance rating was conducted to assess the effectiveness of music therapy, in nine out of nineteen questions, a significant difference was observed across study groups (P < 0.05). For remaining ten questions, no significant difference was observed between the study groups (P > 0.05) [Table 2]. Mean response score in the examination is shown in [Figure 1] and [Table 3]. | Table 2: Academic performances in relation to anxiety among study participants
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| Discussion | | |
A raga is a melodic outline for improvization analogous to a melodic mode practiced since time immemorial in the Indian classical music tradition as the remarkable and central feature which has no conceptual counterpart with the classical European music rituals. Each raga is an array of five melodic notes which have been assumed to have the ability to mood changes of audiences in relation to time of the day and seasons of the years.[5] According to Dr. Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji, advantages of music therapy embrace relief from pain and discomfort, reduction of stress, improved coping, self-empowerment, continued developmental growth, heightened satisfaction, reduced job-related stress, and enhancement in the overall sense of well-being, and better social consciousness was observed.[6]
There are studies which have shown that there is a direct relationship between anxiety and learning those who are engaged in music listening.[7],[8] Researchers have studied the relationship between the type of music and study.[9] It has been shown that listening to soft-music results in improved concentration and better academic performance in students.[10],[11] In a study which evaluated music as means to support academic performance, it was shown that there was a high correlation between positive self-perception, self-esteem, good relationships, and active music performance and helped improve confidence, self-esteem, and facilitated study motivation.[12]
The present study attempted to explore the effect of music on academic performance and was assessed in the Academic Performance Rating Scale assessment compared to posttest after administration of Raag Shivaranjani and Raag Mohana to the intervention group in relation to pretest performances; however, music therapy was withheld from the control group. Research has shown that scholars who join music education classes have healthier general achievement (scholars who participated in music achieved better grades in English, Mathematics, History, and Science than who did not participate in music classes).[13],[14]
There is ample literature showing direct effect regarding music and its ability to reduce an anxiety state. Unqualified academic achievement of students after involvement in music learning is undercloud of clarity though research groups claimed that active music participation helps improvement of cognitive abilities in math tasks and verbal skills.[15],[16],[17],[18] The positive effect of participation in music on general achievement was proved in the experimental study of Barr et al.[19] The newer researches had revealed a relationship between elementary school pupils' academic performance and the participation in music programs.[20] Musical frequencies cause mutual responses that can calm us by occupying channels in our brain by disrupting us and tuning stimuli from outside.[21],[22],[23] In addition, it has been shown that participation in musical activities facilitates the development of friendships, contributes to a better social climate in classroom, pupils' confidence and sense of belonging. These have impacts on intellectual, social, and personal development of children and young people.[5],[4],[24],[25],[26],[27]
Some research groups, however, have observed contradictory findings of no relation of music with learning performances.[28],[29]
It may be due to the fact that participating in music activities is related to other factors which have also a strong impact on academic achievements, such as parents and home environment.[30],[31]
Yet, there is observation that regular music activity helps in heightening the self-esteem and augmented motivation.[32],[33]
Strengths of the study
The current study helped us to internalize that Indian classical music in the form of abstract music instruction methods through the ‘raga’ improves certain aptitude in nursing students that included “Academic performances in relation to anxiety.” Based on our literature search, none of the published studies have investigated regarding the role of music in formulating healthcare curriculum in published literature from Indian sub-continent particularly using Indian classical raga on academic institutions.
Limitations of the study
This novel study had several limitations. First, this was a single-center study with the limited sample in resource-poor setting on female nursing students. Hence, the external validity of data remains questionable; Second, there was lack of information on student's family and the local guardian support available for students in and around institute. This might have important implication as students belonging to same or nearby place may experience better emotional and psychosocial support as compared to students hailing from distant areas that may have been factors to be actual or potential bias in our study.
Future directions of the study
A national level prospective longitudinal multipronged multicentric study is required to throw light on role of Indian classical music on academic growth of our future generations from grassroots to higher education to combat ever-growing load of courses and curriculum. However, the basic problem in the research in Indian infrastructure is a lack of logistics for which we need to improve to give birth to valid data.
| Conclusions | | |
Music is a relatively a less intrusive and less expensive tool to improve academic performance with its own merits and limitations.[4] There are few studies which evaluated the effect of music therapy on academic performance. The current study suggests that a subgroup of students can get benefitted when the music is used as an intervention to improve academic performance.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
Ethical conduct of research
Ethical conduct of research: Ethical clearance was obtained from Institutional Ethics Committee, Narayana College of Nursing and informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study.
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[Figure 1]
[Table 1], [Table 2], [Table 3]
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