The cognitive development and perceptions about nursing as a profession of baccalaureate nursing students

Abstract

<p>Baccalaureate nursing programs purport to prepare nurses who have a professional view of nursing and of the nurse and who are capable of making independent nursing decisions, dealing with the uncertainty of many nursing situations, dealing with abstract ideas, and accepting the diversity of beliefs, values, attitudes, life styles, life goals, and decision making patterns employed by persons with whom they interact. The former goal of baccalaureate nursing programs can be referred to as the development of a professional perception about nursing, and the latter goal can be referred to as the development of cognitive structures. While both of these goals are promoted as being central to baccalaureate nursing education, little has been reported to document the measurement of goal-attainment in these areas. This study, therefore, was designed to describe the cognitive development and perceptions about nursing as a profession, the change in each of these variables which occurs over an academic year, and the relationship between these variables for students at all four levels of baccalaureate nursing programs. The subjects in this study were 123 students--29 freshmen, 27 sophomore, 34 juniors, and 33 seniors--enrolled in three National League for Nursing accredited baccalaureate programs in the northeast. Subjects were tested at the beginning of the fall semester and at the end of the spring semester of the same academic year. The KneWi instrument, based on William Perry's theory of intellectual and ethical development, was used to measure cognitive development. The Views about Nursing instrument, based on characteristics of professions/professionals and developed by this investigator, was used to measure perceptions about nursing as a profession. ANOVA, ANACOVA, repeated measures, and post hoc Scheffe multiple comparison procedures were performed as appropriate. These analyses revealed significant differences in cognitive development scores between freshmen and seniors, and freshmen and sophomores, and a significant change in score from fall to spring for seniors only; senior subjects' mean score, however, still reflected Perry's category of dualism. On the Views about Nursing measure, all four levels showed significant changes in scores from fall to spring; significant differences were found between freshmen and sophomores, juniors and seniors in the fall and freshmen and seniors, and juniors and seniors in the spring. Implications of this study for nursing practice, education and research are discussed.</p>