THE RELATIONSHIP OF FIELD DEPENDENCE-INDEPENDENCE TO IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NURSING PROCESS BY REGISTERED NURSES IN A CLINICAL SETTING.
Contributors: Northern Illinois University.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 127
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of the field dependence-independence dimension of cognitive style of employed registered nurses and implementation of the nursing process in a clinical setting. The control variables of level of education, age, current work experience, and other work experience were considered in the analysis. Implementation of the nursing process was measured as the (a) percentage of nursing process chains completed, (b) percentage of components used, and (c) percentage of chains with a nursing diagnosis documented on the progress notes of closed patient health records.

The sample consisted of 56 registered nurses from five medical-surgical units of a 287-bed private hospital in a midwestern suburb. By educational level, there were 18 baccalaureate, 19 diploma, and 19 associate degree nurses.

The conceptual framework focused on field dependence-independence and individual differences of staff nurses as evidenced by documentation on patient health records. For all nurses, 24.18% of the nursing process chains were completed, 58.87% of the components were used, and 61.74% of the chains had a nursing diagnosis. Field dependence-independence was measured with the Group Embedded Figures Test with a mean of 11.23. A one-way analysis of variance among educational levels indicated that baccalaureate nurses had higher Group Embedded Figures Test scores and percentage of nursing process chains completed than diploma nurses, 42% of whom were in the lowest test score quarter. Associate degree nurses tended to distribute themselves equally among all four test score quarters.

Partial correlations by educational level showed a positive and significant relationship between the Group Embedded Figures Test score and documentation for diploma nurses. Diploma nurses, however, documented less than associate degree or baccalaureate nurses. For associate degree nurses, an inverse relationship was observed and the near zero correlations for baccalaureate nurses did not suggest a relationship or direction. It was suggested that for nurses with low Group Embedded Figures Test scores, improvement in documentation might be achieved by efforts to increase field independence.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-09, Section: B, page: 2872.

Thesis (ED.D.)--NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, 1984.

School code: 0162.