DIMENSIONS OF MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING PRACTICE.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 358
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study described medical-surgical, gerontological, and community health nurses' perceptions about dimensions of nursing practice and the importance of selected professional nursing competencies. Four hundred twenty-three members of the American Nurses' Association responded via mailed, self-report questionnaires: a 94-item Practice Dimensions Index and a 99-item Professional Nursing Competencies Index Responses of medical-surgical nurses were also analyzed according to eight categories of locus of employment in a hospital.

Medical-surgical nurses reported greater severity and instability of patient condition, gerontological nurses reported greater needs for support and assistance from nursing personnel, and community health nurses reported greater autonomy in the practice setting; differences among groups were significant at the .001 level of confidence. No significant differences were found among these groups on the subindices measuring practice arrangements with medicine, process nursing competencies, and functional competencies.

Respondents employed in critical/intensive care settings (n = 77) reported providing care to patients who were more severely ill and physiologically unstable than nurses with other loci of employment; these findings were significantly different from other groups. Differences in responses about needs for support and assistance, autonomy in the practice setting, and practice arrangements with medicine were not significantly different based on locus of employment. Although respondents from critical/intensive care units rated 11 functional and 15 process competencies to be of major importance to their practice, analyses did not reveal statistically significant differences.

Findings from this study suggest that medical-surgical nursing practice is not a distinct area of practice. Additionally, locus of employment was not a significant predictor of practice dimensions or perceived importance of nursing competencies, although critical/intensive care nurses had higher mean scores for each subindex when compared with other groups of nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-12, Section: B, page: 4181.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1985.

School code: 0055.