PERCEPTIONS OF THE LEVELS OF PROFESSIONALIZATION IN NURSING HELD BY ACTIVELY PRACTICING REGISTERED NURSES IN KANSAS.
Contributors: Kansas State University.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 167
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Purpose. The purpose of the research project was to investigate how actively practicing RNs, licensed in Kansas, perceive the differences in what professionalism in Nursing is now and what professionalism in Nursing ought to be.

Review of Literature. A study, analysis and summary of the writings were made to provide an understanding of professionalism, professionalization in Nursing, trends in Nursing in the United States and Nursing in Kansas.

Methods and Procedures. Two hundred and two (202) from 300 RNs randomly selected sample of 9,525 RNs, licensed in Kansas, who were actively practicing Nursing as of November, 1983, responded to the mail survey: Vaillot's Professional Scales and the demographic data questionnaire designed by the researcher. The range of the responses for the Professional Scales was 0-2 with 0 being the most positive. Responses to the Professional Scales were clustered by the demographic data. The significant .05 level was used for all the tests. Responses were analyzed by the t-test or analysis of variance, Scheffe and Tukey. Significant difference for responses for one item or more was the criterion for rejecting a hypothesis clustered by a specific data.

The summed means (4.3631) and the standard deviation (1.001) of the responses for item 26, the Likert-scale, showed that 201 respondents perceived the level of professionalization in Nursing to be slightly above the average value on the high section of the spectrum. The range was 1-7 with 7 being the highest level. The responses indicated that the perceptions of the level of professionalization in Nursing should be improved.

The range of the responses indicated that RNs perceive that Nursing ideally ought to be on a higher level of professionalization than they perceive that Nursing is now in current practice.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: A, page: 2405.

Thesis (PH.D.)--KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, 1984.

School code: 0100.