ACTUAL AND IDEAL COMPETENCIES OF THE NURSING GRADUATE AS PERCEIVED BY DEANS OF NURSING PROGRAMS AND SELECTED PROFESSIONAL NURSES (BEGINNING, STAFF).
Contributors: Illinois State University.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 189
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: A study was conducted to determine the degree of congruence between (1) deans, directors, head nurses, and assistant head nurses; (2) deans/directors (deans), head nurses, and assistant head nurses; and (3) deans and head nurses/assistant head nurses (head nurses) in relation to the actual and ideal competencies of the nursing graduate in the role of a beginning staff nurse. Survey forms were distributed in the Fall of 1984 and early Winter of 1985 to 77 deans of nursing programs throughout Illinois and 130 head nurses in six hospitals in a fifty-mile radius of a large metropolitan city in Illinois. Of the 207 survey forms distributed 128 forms were returned with 122 completed forms utilized for data analysis.

The statistical procedures of choice were frequencies, percentages, means, oneway analysis of variance, and the LSD multiple contrast test. When analyzing data with oneway analysis of variance, and the LSD multiple contrast test. When analyzing data with oneway analysis of variance and the LSD procedure, the investigator chose to utilize three groups (due to the low sample population of deans): deans/directors (deans), head nurses, and assistant head nurses. The investigator concluded that there were significant differences either at the 0.001 or 0.0001 level among the three groups in the actual competency areas of Assessment, Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation. Significant differences were also noted at the 0.05 level in all areas of the actual competencies among the three groups when using the LSD procedure. There were no significant differences among the three groups in the four ideal competency areas of the nursing survey form. When deans and head nurses, as groups, were compared, significant differences were found in the actual competency areas either at the 0.001 or 0.0001 level, but not in the ideal competencies of the nursing graduate. Therefore, the investigator has concluded that perceptual differences of actual competencies of the nursing graduate in the role of a beginning staff nurse continue to exist between nursing educators and nursing service personnel as cited in the literature.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: A, page: 2589.

Thesis (PH.D.)--ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY, 1985.

School code: 0092.