UK student nurses' education values: a three-centre study
Carol Haigh, SeniorLecturer in Research; Natalie Yates-Bolton, Lecturer in Nursing Martin Johnson, Professor in Nursing,
School of Nursing, University of Salford,
UK
What are Values? A cognitive and emotional disposition
towards a person, object or idea.
Attitudes are similar, but more specific. ‘Measurement’ of attitudes can suggest strength that values are held
How are values adopted? Genetic disposition (Dawkins)
Species altruism, ‘Selfish Gene’ Behaviourism and Social
Learning Theory (Bandura) Modelling and perceived
reward/status Existential/humanist (Raths)
Values chosen, freely from alternatives
BackgroundGerard Fealy (2004, Irish Context)Quotes from Attitude surveys: ‘the nurse who is good at theory is rarely
good at the practical side of nursing’ (McGowan 1980, p. 94).
university education was not appropriate for nurses (Scanlan 1991)
Underlying these views are ‘values’
Approaches to the study of values Spranger’s (1928) ‘Types of ‘men’. ”
Theoretical, Economic, Aesthetic, Social, Political, Religious
Theoretical “…since the interests of the theoretical man (sic) are empirical, critical and rational, he is necessarily an intellectualist, frequently a scientist or a philosopher.” (Vernon and Allport 1931, p233)
Allport, Vernon and Lindzey (1960) values instrument draws on this, used by several nurse researchers
Early studies of educational valuesIn a UK study Singh (1971) compared students on ‘experimental’ courses (e.g. combined degree/SRN) and Diploma/SRN) courses with ‘traditional’ SRN students but found no statistically significant difference on the ‘theoretical’ value.
Experimental 29.96
SRN 30.24
Difference = - 0.28
Singh (1971)However when he compared ‘experimental’ students (N = 229) with non-nursing ‘female undergaduates’ (N = 147) he found a notable and statistically significant difference (p < 0.001)
Experimental students
29.96
Female undergraduates
33.80
In the USA O’Neill (1973) found the opposite (p < 0.1)
Values General College Students N = 1289
Nursing students
N = 459
Mean Mean
Theoretical 35.7 37.5
Research Questions Do student nurses’ educational values
vary between different universities? Do educational values in student nurses
differ by programme of study? Do educational values in student nurses
change across time?
Sample 3 universities
Southern, Russell, Riverside
Pre-registration students (n=1133) Diploma n=835 Degree n=287
(11 missing responses on this variable)
Methods 1
William A Scott General Values Instrument (1959). This is a Likert Scale Instrument measuring general attitudes;
Honesty ReligiousnessIntellectualism Self ControlAcademic Achievement Independence Altruism
Nursing specific items added which included the Scott categories plus 2 other - Paternalism and Authority
A sub set of variables focusing upon general and professional educational values is
the focus of this presentation. We report on altruism and honesty (Johnson, Haigh and Yates-Bolton JAN, 57, 4, 366-374)
Educational values subset - Scott Reading only things that don’t pose any
intellectual challenge (S2) Working hard to do well academically (S4) Ignoring lectures and text-books that are
difficult (S7) Not letting studies interfere with one’s
social life (S24) Striving hard to get the top marks in the
group (S27) Being interested only in one’s work (S34)
Educational values subset - Johnson Little has been gained by educating nurses
in a University rather than a Hospital School of Nursing (J5)
Nursing should be a highly educated profession like Medicine and Law (J8)
Academic qualifications should not be important to nursing career advancement (J16)
Methods 2 Ethical approval obtained from participating
organisations Student questionnaire administered in class
time – 20 minutes. Investigators not particularly involved with programme
Ordinal data was analysed using SPSS Descriptive stats Correlation MANOVA
Demographics - Gender
Demographics - age ranges
RiversideRussellSouthern
Uni
250
200
150
100
50
0
Co
un
t
50-59
40-49
30-39
20-29
15-19
age ranges
Educational Demographics - NVQStudents with any NVQ Attainment by Centre
35.71
17.03
28.16
0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
30.00
35.00
40.00
SouthernN = 98
Russell N = 417
Riverside N =618
University
% of coh
ort
Educational Demographics – entry level GSCE,O & A level
6.8
8.5
6.5
Proxy measure of educational entry level
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
8.00
9.00
Southern N = 98
Russell N = 417
Riverside N = 618
Me
an
GC
E a
nd
GC
SE
O a
nd
A le
vel P
er
stu
de
nt
Educational Demographics - degree
Percentage degree possession by Centre
7.2
4.8
3.8
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Southern N = 98
Russell N = 417
Riverside N = 618
University
Percentage
Educational values relationships by university - 1
The relationship between university and admiration for those who do not let studies interfere with social life was investigated
There was a small weak negative statistically significant correlation between the two variables [rs= -.101 n= 1133 p =.001]
This gives of coefficient of determination of 1%
This suggests that students who attended Riverside university were more likely to admire this behaviour
Educational values relationships by university- 2 The relationship between
university and admiration for those who strive hard to get the top marks was investigated
There was a weak statistically significant correlation between the two variables [rs= .202 n= 1133 p <.001] giving a coefficient of determination of 4%
This suggests that students who attended Riverside university were more likely to admire this behaviour
Educational values relationships by programme of study - 1 The relationship between
programme of study and admiration for those who strive hard to get the top marks was investigated
There was a small weak positive statistically significant correlation between the two variables [rs= .133 n= 1133 p <.001] giving a coefficient of determination of 1.7%
This suggests that students who were enrolled on degree programmes were more likely to admire this behaviour
Educational values relationships by programme of study - 2
The relationship between programme of study and agreement with the statement ‘Nursing should be a highly educated profession like Medicine and Law’ was investigated
There was a weak positive statistically significant correlation between the two variables [rs= .104 n= 1133 p <.001] giving a coefficient of determination of 1.0%
This suggests that students who were enrolled on degree programmes were more likely to agree with this stance
Educational values relationships by year of study - 1 The relationship between
year of study and admiration for those who ignore lectures and text-books that are difficult was investigated
There was a weak negative statistically significant correlation between the two variables [rs= -.166 n= 1133 p <.001] giving a coefficient of determination of 2%
This suggests that third year students were less likely to admire this behaviour
Educational values relationships by year of study - 2
The relationship between year of study and the variable ‘little has been gained by educating nurses in a University rather than a Hospital School of Nursing’ was investigated
There was a weak negative statistically significant correlation between the two variables [rs= -.125 n= 1133 p <.001] giving a coefficient of determination of 1.5%
This suggests that third year students were less likely to agree with this statement
MANOVA Multivariate tests for statistical significance
between groups by University Programme of Study Year of study
Used Pillai’s trace as test of statistically significant differences between groups because of differences in sample sizes
Because this used multiple comparisons we applied a Bonferroni adjustment which gave a new probability value of .007
Working hard to do well academicallyDiploma and Degree
4.4
4.6
4.8
5
Diploma Degree Southern (Dip)
year 1year 2year 3
Overall students on both programmes viewed working hard to do well academically less positively by the third year. (Diploma – M 4.78, 4.74,4.70) (Degree – M 4.85, 4.83,4.64)
Southern Diploma held opposite view in year 3 (M – 4.64, 4.60.4.79)
Impact on life long learning
admire
Studying hard to get good marks in tests and exams
4.24.44.64.8
5
Diploma Degree S Dip
year 1year 2year 3
Overall Diploma and Degree students viewed studying hard to get good marks in tests and exams less favourably in the third year.
Exception Southern Diploma students
admire
Between subjects effects For the sub set ‘educational values’
University accounted for 3.6% of variance (p=.001)
Programme of study accounted for 6.1% of variance (p=>.001)
Year of study accounted for 3.2% of variance (p=>.001)
Conclusions There were some variable specific differences
between the student groups There was values congruence across the diploma
groups as there was across the degree groups The biggest difference between the student
groups was accounted for by programme of study.
For some educational values there was no evidence of improvement over time
Many students are leaving nurse education with less intellectual enthusiasm than with which they entered.
Thank you
Carol Haigh [email protected]
Natalie Yates-Bolton [email protected]
Martin [email protected]