POLITICAL BEHAVIOR OF NURSES IN TENNESSEE (NURSING, LEADERSHIP).
Contributors: Peabody College For Teachers Of Vanderbilt University.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 135
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This research study examined the political behavior of nurses in Tennessee by asking the following research questions: (a) What is the nature and extent of being politically active? (b) What are the group profiles of politically active and politically inactive nurses? (c) Do the profiles differ significantly on the independent variables?.

The subjects consisted of an independent selected sample of 10% of the 2,020 members of the Tennessee Nurses' Association for a total of 202 subjects. The political Activity Index (Woodward & Roper, 1950) was chosen to measure political behavior. The demographic questionnaire was developed by me to measure the following independent variables: educational level, career characteristics, age, socio-economic status, community size in which nurses work, sex, and geographic region in which nurses live in Tennessee. Also, subjects were asked if they had made financial contributions to politically active nursing organizations. The 157 (78%) responses were analyzed using the statistical programs for frequencies and chi-square.

In this study, 76 (48%) nurses in Tennessee scored in the politically active range on the Political Activity Index and 81 (52%) scored politically inactive. Nurses with master's degrees or higher were significantly more politically active than nurses with bachelor's degrees or lower. Teachers in nursing education were significantly more politically active than nurses in administration and clinical practice. Nurses in medical-surgical practice were significantly less politically active than nurses in community-public health, geriatrics, maternal-child health, and psychiatric-mental health. Nurses in hospital staff positions were significantly less politically active than hospital clinical specialists and nurses in community-public health, industrial nursing, physician's offices, and on school of nursing faculties. Further, nurses on school of nursing faculties were significantly more politically active than the previously mentioned groups of nurses.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-06, Section: B, page: 1873.

Thesis (PH.D.)--PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, 1985.

School code: 0074.