This study was conducted to evaluate the academic motivation and research anxiety of postgraduate students receiving education in the field of nursing.

Data were collected with the students studying at an Institute of Health Sciences between the dates of 1-15 March 2017 by using a “Data Collection Form”, “Academic Motivation Scale” and “Research Anxiety Scale”. p<0.05 value was accepted as statistically significant.

The mean age of the students was 26.58±4.07 years, 94.7% were female, 91.2% had nuclear family, 93% of them had middle income, 86% of the students chose the nursing profession willingly and 43.9% of the students worked in an institution other than university and state öğrenhospitals. 82.5% of the students were studying in a master programme and 75.4% of the total students were in the course period. It was determined that as the age and the duration of working years of the graduate students increased, their research anxiety was decreased. It was also found that the anxiety level of the postgraduate students who were in the course period were higher than the ones who were in the thesis period. A statistically negative correlation was found between the score of Academic Motivation Scale and Research Anxiety Scale.

As the academic motivation of the postgraduate students increased, their research anxiety level decreased. Individual counselling should be beneficial to improve the academic motivation and to reduce anxiety level of the students.