EFFECTS OF SELECTED STUDENT AND CURRICULUM CHARACTERISTICS ON PERCEPTIONS OF ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING STUDENTS OF PEERS, FACULTY, STAFF NURSES AND THE NURSING PROFESSION (SOCIALIZATION, REFERENCE GROUPS).
Contributors: University of California, Los Angeles.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 169
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of (1) nine demographic characteristics, (2) academic ability, (3) three curriculum characteristics, and (4) differences between schools on associate degree nursing students' perceptions of peers, faculty, staff nurses, and the nursing profession. Subjects were 468 respondents from six schools within the Los Angeles Community College District. Factor based scales were derived from the Learing Environment Questionnaire (Dalme, 1979). Significant associations between independent variables and the factor scales determined which variables were retained for regression analysis.

There were two major conclusions: students' perceptions of peers, faculty, staff nurses and the nursing profession are differentially influenced by demographic characteristics of students and curriculum characteristics of educational programs; and, the significant differences among schools offering associate degree programs in nursing are sufficient to preclude generalizations about types of nursing education programs. The differential effects were: (1) perceptions of faculty become more positive the longer students are in the program, but students with prior academic degrees perceive faculty less positively than students without prior degrees; (2) staff nurses are perceived more positively by minority students than by Caucasian students; and (3) the nursing profession is perceived less positively by students with prior academic degrees than by students without prior degrees and clinical practice hours negatively influence perceptions of the profession, independent of semester in the program.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, Section: A, page: 2036.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, 1986.

School code: 0031.