Student nurses’ specialty choice: the influence of personality and education

Contemporary NursePublished 1 April 1993

R. Julian Hafner, Nicholas Proctor

DOI10.5172/conu.2.1.38

Source URL

Citations22

SJR quartileQ2

SJR score0.52

SNIP0.63

TL;DR

Correlations showed that the more conservative nurses initially selected the more traditional nursing specialties, and there were statistically significant relationships between psychological defence style and specialty choice.

Abstract

Before and after a nine week psychiatric-mental health (PMH) nursing program of their Diploma course, 51 second year student nurses completed a questionnaire on which they rated their interest in 14 nursing specialties. They also completed measures of personality and attitudes to psychiatric treatment. Factor analysis showed that students' initial specialty interests fell into three groups that were termed 'procedural', 'child/infant orientated', and 'action orientated'. After the PMH program, the popularity and interrelationships of specialty choice changed substantially. Community and psychiatric nursing became more popular, whereas some of the 'procedural' specialties became less so. Correlations showed that the more conservative nurses initially selected the more traditional nursing specialties, and there were statistically significant relationships between psychological defence style and specialty choice. These findings have implications for nursing specialty choice and recruitment.

Keywords

PsychologyMedicineNursing

British Journal of Social and Clinical PsychologyA New Measure of Conservatism*

575 Citations1968Glenn D. Wilson, John R. Patterson

The ‘Conservatism Scale’ is found to be a remarkably reliable, valid, and economical instrument.

Journal of Advanced NursingStudent nurses' attitudes to psychiatry: the influence of training and personality

44 Citations1991Nicholas Procter, Julian Hafner

Second-year students completed the Attitudes to Treatment Questionnaire, the Conservatism Scale (CS), the Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ) and an open-ended questionnaire before and after components of their psychiatric training programme, which included a 1-week placement in a psychiatric hospital.

PubMedAttitudes toward mental illness: does a psychiatric nursing course make a difference?

34 Citations1989Annette Bairan, Beverly Farnsworth

The psychiatric nursing course did make a difference: of the five factors in the scale, four changed significantly and students became less Authoritarian, less Benevolent, more inclined toward Mental Health Ideology, and less Social Restrictive.

Journal of Advanced NursingThe effects of training and social orientation on attitudes towards psychiatric treatments

17 Citations1989Liam Clarke

The results indicated that the groups differed significantly in their attitudes towards treatment, the first year group being significantly less liberal, having a more physical attitude towards treatment than the second and third year groups, and no significant correlation between conservatism and attitudes to treatment found.

Journal of Nursing EducationPulmonary Nurse Specialists: Preparation for the Advanced Practice Role

1 Citations1986Linda Norton, Dorothy L. Sexton

A survey was done to determine the factors that influence nurses' decisions to prepare as specialists in pulmonary nursing and to describe nurses who had worked with a pulmonary clinical specialist and their impression of caring for pulmonary patients more positively.