Investigation of the lifelong learning attitudes of medical and health sciences students according to various variables

Health professionals should update their knowledge and skills in their professional lives due to the dynamic nature of knowledge in the field of health; in other words, they should be lifelong learners. The related literature lacks a theoretical approach and a comprehensive analysis of current student attitudes towards lifelong learning based on samples that include the majority of health professions (such as medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing) where students have been analyzed with a holistic or comparative approach. The main aim of the present study was to determine the attitudes of students at Ege University's faculties of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing, towards lifelong learning. For this purpose, the study aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale to determine the attitudes of higher education students in health sciences towards lifelong learning according to gender; faculty; class; foreign language knowledge level; parental income level perception; parental education; post-graduation goals and digital literacy variables. This study, designed with a correlational research model, was conducted in four main phases. In the preparation phase, an in-depth literature review was conducted. Based on the literature review, independent variables were identified within a conceptual and theoretical framework for lifelong learning in medicine and health sciences. Then, in the scale development phase, qualitative data was collected based on the theoretical framework. Using this data and the literature review findings, an item pool consisting of 41 items was developed. Expert opinion was obtained for this draft version of the scale. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed with data obtained from a group of students (n = 555) with similar characteristics to the sample of the study. As a result of this analysis, a structure consisting of 23 items and five factors emerged. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed with data collected from a different sample (n = 254). As a result of this, it was found that the measurement model was consistent in a different sample with similar characteristics. Besides, the Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficient of the scale was 0.911. Thus, the developed lifelong learning attitude scale was found to be valid and reliable. In the application phase, the holistic data collection instrument (that also measured the independent variables) was applied to the sample (n = 2118), selected with a stratified purposive sampling method. Within this thesis, suggestions were provided to the institutions in the field of medicine and health sciences to train lifelong learners. These included providing intensive vocational foreign language education, free access to information resources and career counseling support to the students regarding post-graduation goals. Besides, recommendations have been made to develop a student-centered educational policy enriched with digital learning resources and implicit curricula that indirectly acquire digital literacy skills. Keywords; Medicine; Dentistry; Pharmacy; Nursing; Health Sciences; Lifelong Learning; Attitude Scale; Continuing Professional Development; Digital Literacy.