A COMPARISON STUDY OF THE SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF REGISTERED NURSES WHO RETURN TO COLLEGE FOR A BACCALAUREATE DEGREE AND THOSE WHO DO NOT (SOCIODEMOGRAPHY, NURSING EDUCATION).
Contributors: Rutgers University.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 263
Subjects: Education, Sociology of.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: As registered nurses return to college for the baccalaureate degree, they are a group about which little is known. In addition to nurses who elect to return to college, there remains a significant number who choose not to. In the interest of understanding both groups from a socio-demographic and psychological perspective, this study gathered data to compare and contrast the groups.

This descriptive survey research utilized a convenience sample of 172 registered nurses who had returned to college and 161 who had not. A socio-demographic questionnaire and the Cattell 16 Personality Factor questionnaire were administered to both groups. Data were analyzed using t test, ANOVA, Scheffe's post hoc, chi-square and Cramer's coefficient statistics.

Of the 50 hypotheses, 29 null hypotheses were accepted and 21 were rejected. The enrolled group was younger, more likely to be single and not share a home with a spouse or partner, had fewer children, had the support for returning to college of a spouse or partner as well as coworkers and had completed their basic nursing education fewer years ago than the nonenrolled group. The enrolled group were most likely associate degree graduates, practiced more often in the clinical setting of community health nursing and considered the BSN as a means to decrease job stress and to increase upward career mobility. As a group they were not satisfied with their professional knowledge base and were more likely to claim the specialty of mental health nursing. Their yearly income was considerably higher than the nonenrolled group and they were redefining life choices and goals to a greater degree than the comparison group. The enrolled group was less reserved than the nonenrolled, more assertive, more suspicious, less practical, more casual and much more tense, driven and irritable.

No time to study, family responsibilities and financial concerns were of importance to the enrolled group. The nonenrolled group identified family responsibilities, finances and program rigidity as deterrents prohibiting their enrollment.

These data offer a description of 333 registered nurses and the influences their socio-demographic and psychological characteristics had on their return to college for a baccalaureate degree.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-07, Section: A, page: 2495.

Thesis (ED.D.)--RUTGERS THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY - NEW BRUNSWICK, 1991.

School code: 0190.