STUDY OF EMPLOYER ATTITUDES TOWARD UNDERGRADUATE PROFESSIONAL CURRICULA IN ACCOUNTING, ENGINEERING, AND NURSING AND EMPLOYER EXPECTATIONS OF NEW BACCALAUREATE GRADUATES FROM THESE DISCIPLINES.
Contributors: St. Louis University.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 138
Subjects: Education, Higher.
Description: Employers of accountants, engineers, and nurses were compared for attitudes toward three components of undergraduate professional curricula; liberal arts studies, theoretical preparation in the discipline and practical preparation in the discipline. Employers of graduates from these three disciplines were also compared for their expectations of new graduates regarding assumption of supervisory responsibilities, anticipated length of employment, completion of orientation programs and other characteristics of the initial employment situation.

The research hypotheses of this study were tested by use of a mailed questionnaire to a national sample of employers of accountants, engineers and nurses. Stratified sampling with systematic sampling of each stratum was utilized. An instrument developed by the researcher was used to measure variables germane to this investigation. The data were analyzed by parametric and nonparametric statistical tests.

Three weeks after the third mailing, 42.2 percent of the national sample of employers had returned completed instruments to the researcher. No statistically significant differences were found in employers' attitudes toward the theoretical preparation in the discipline component of curricula. Employers of nurses held statistically significant (p < .05) more favorable attitudes toward the liberal arts studies and statistically significant (p < .001) less favorable attitudes toward practical preparation in the discipline than employers of accountants and engineers. Employers of nurses held statistically significant (p < .001) earlier expectations for assumption of supervisory responsibilities by new graduates, statistically significant (p < .001) lower expectations for length of employment, and provided statistically significant (p < .001) shorter periods of orientation than employers of accountants and engineers.

The major conclusion of this study was that a number of identifiable differences exist between employer expectations of new graduates in nursing and new graduates in accounting and engineering that create difficulties for new baccalaureate nurses in the initial employment situation. This is clearly an area where further research is needed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, Section: A, page: 1655.

Thesis (PH.D.)--SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY, 1984.

School code: 0193.