COOPERATIVE EDUCATION IN NURSING: EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIALIZATION ON SELECTED ROLE VARIABLES.
Contributors: Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.)
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 193
Subjects: Education, Higher.
Description: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of organizational socialization as a component of cooperative education on the process of professional socialization in a baccalaureate nursing program. Cooperative education, which alternates periods of school and work, exposes the nursing student to both professional and organizational socialization, and therefore, the potential for role conflict.

Using the population (N = 655) of upperclass students in the College of Nursing at Northeastern University during the fall quarter 1984, the effect of the independent variables, year (sophomore, middler, junior, or senior) and division (school or work), on the dependent variables, role concept, role conflict, role certainty, and choice of role model, was investigated. Data were collected using a mailed questionnaire which provided data regarding the role concepts (professional, bureaucratic, and service), role conflict, and role certainty of respondents. Questions were added to determine the respondent's choice of role model and to collect information regarding work history and cooperative education experience.

A total of 457 students (70% of the population) returned the questionnaire. Crosstabulations described the respondents' background, work history, and cooperative education experience. Variables were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and chi square.

Results indicated that professional role concept increases and bureaucratic role concept decreases (p < .01) from sophomore to senior year, with no difference by division. Role conflict also increases (p < .05), with students in school more likely than students on coop to express role conflict (p < .01). Role certainty increases (p < .05) from sophomore to senior year, with no difference by division. Students, regardless of year, overwhelmingly chose a work-centered role model. However, students who chose a school-centered role model were more likely to be in school, while students who chose a work-centered role model tended to be on coop (p < .01).

Results of the study have implications for nursing faculty, cooperative education professionals, and employers of coops and graduate nurses. Suggestions for further research focused on coop students and graduates, the school-work dichotomy in relation to cooperative education, and components of nursing role concept.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-10, Section: A, page: 2937.

Thesis (ED.D.)--NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY, 1985.

School code: 0160.