BACCALAUREATE NURSING EDUCATION: STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF ROLES, EFFORT, AND PERFORMANCE.
Contributors: Claremont Graduate School.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 246
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Nursing education has developed two distinct types of baccalaureate programs--generic and completion--with students from the two programs forming three separate groups: generic, generic-completion, and completion. This study proposed to analyze differences in the perceptions of the three groups of nursing students regarding total role investment, quality of effort, and nursing performance. Another purpose was to determine the best predictors of nursing performance.

The research questions asked: (1) Did the generic, generic-completion, and completion students differ in regard to biographical variables, total role investment, quality of effort, and nursing performance? (2) What was the effect of total role investment on quality of effort and nursing performance? (3) Was there a relationship between quality of effort and nursing performance? (4) What were the significant predictors of nursing performance?.

The study employed an exploratory research design. Data on 194 volunteer senior baccalaureate nursing students were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics to answer the research questions. The independent variables included: biographical data, conditions in college, type of students, type of nursing program, and total role investment. The dependent variables included nursing performance and quality of effort. The instruments used in the study consisted of the Total Role Investment Scale, Pace's College Student Experience Questionnaire, and Lubno's modified version of Schwirian's Six-Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance.

Results demonstrated that significant differences existed between the three groups of students in regard to their perceptions of biographical data, total role investment, quality of effort, and nursing performance. A weak significant linear relationship existed between quality of effort and nursing performance. The regression model indicated that quality of effort and total investment were the best predictors of nursing performance.

In conclusion, differences in nursing performance were related to student characteristics rather than type of baccalaureate nursing program. Those students that involved themselves in several different roles and spent quality time and effort pursuing nursing education scored higher on nursing performance. Further research should focus on what other variables account for nursing performance, and what nursing education can do to facilitate nursing performance.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: A, page: 2576.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE CLAREMONT GRADUATE SCHOOL, 1985.

School code: 0047.