the self-efficasy of post graduate nursing students in shahid beheshti college of nursing and midwifery in rasht

background and purpose: research self-efficacy is an important subject in university education. research is considered essential to the development of societies. as such, postgraduate students require research courses in their curricula in addition to regular educational contents. materials and methods: this descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on two groups of postgraduate students (master’s degree) of nursing education and critical care nursing at guilan university of medical sciences during 2008-2010 using a reliable research self-efficacy scale. overall and individual dimensions of research self-efficacy in both groups were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, chi-square and independent t-test. results: no significant differences were observed between the study groups in the overall and individual dimensions of research selfefficacy. however, score of research self-efficacy was slightly higher in critical care nursing students compared to the nursing education group. in addition, score of self-efficacy in the dimension of qualitative research had no significant difference between the two groups (p<0.06). conclusion: changes in the curriculum of postgraduate nursing students require the systematic modification of the current courses and integrated designing methods at guilan university of medical sciences, as well as other universities across the country. furthermore, research self-efficacy of students could be improved through the review of syllabi, revision of research methodology, and implementation of research seminar projects for master’s students of nursing education. in this regard, providing qualitative and integrated research methods could be beneficial as well.