THE RELATIONSHIP OF NURSES' ACADEMIC DEGREE LEVEL TO PERCEIVED EXPERT POWER AND INFLUENCE AMONG NURSES.
Contributors: University of San Francisco.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 152
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Psychology, Social.
Description: This study measured the effect three different academic degrees had upon nurses' perception of expert power. University education is an essential element of professionalism (Wilensky, 1964). Expert power, a social power base defined by French and Raven (1959), has been found to be a positive force in organizations.

Acceptance of university education as essential for the professions implies that expert power is a function of at least two components, expertise and appropriate educational credentials. Therefore, holding the actual expertise constant in a video presentation and varying the educational credentials should cause a variation in perceived expert power. This variation is an estimate of the degree to which educational credentials explain perceived expert power.

A randomized, control group, posttest research design was used. The sample of 56 nurses from a California hospital was randomly assigned to three groups to view a video taped presentation of a registered nurse speaking on health care financing issues. The video presentation was exactly the same for each treatment group except that the speaker's academic degree was credited as an Associate Degree in Nursing (AD) for Group I, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) for Group II and a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) for Group III. The subjects' perception of expert power was then measured using two semantic differentials, one to measure source credibility and one to measure attitude and beliefs. The first hypothesis that the BSN would be rated higher in expert power than the AD was not supported. The second hypothesis, testing a similar comparison of the MSN to lesser degrees, was supported. The Tukey-HSD multiple comparisons showed the MSN was rated significantly more credible (p $<$.05) than the BSN and the AD. As hypothesized, none of the subject characteristics of age, highest academic degree or current nursing position showed statistically significant effects. Support for the null hypothesis showing no subject effects makes it possible to generalize the findings of the study with greater confidence. These findings support the hypothesis that higher education can increase a nurse's expert power among nursing peers.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-09, Section: A, page: 2550.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, 1988.

School code: 6019.