CYNICAL AND HUMANITARIAN ATTITUDES OF GENERIC BACCALAUREATE NURSING STUDENTS.
Contributors: Rutgers University.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 181
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in humanitarian and cynical attitudes in general, as well as toward patients and patient care, between beginning and senior level nursing students in generic baccalaureate nursing programs at two state colleges and a university facility in New Jersey.

The literature in medical education and nursing education stresses the humanitarian role of the professional practitioner and the need for the curriculum to foster this role while, at the same time, countering any tendencies toward cynicism. In this cross-sectional study of students' attitudes, the independent variable was the generic baccalaureate nursing students, while the dependent variables were the attitudes of humanitarianism and cynicism. This study involved a total population of 307 generic students enrolled in three nursing programs at three institutions of higher education identified as Alpha, Beta and Gamma. This population was comprised of 163 beginning students and 144 seniors.

Two attitudinal instruments were used: a demographic questionnaire based on the one formulated by Polifroni (1981); and the Scales of Cynicism and Humanitarianism formulated by Eron (1955) and modified by the researcher to include items on attitudes toward patients and patient care.

Statistical tests of significance were made comparing the differences in humanitarianism and cynicism for the beginning and senior students in the three programs. For the students population in all three programs combined, the seniors did not evidence significantly stronger humanitarian attitudes than their freshmen compeers, although the seniors were lower on measures of cynicism. Only at Alpha, the university-based program, did the seniors reveal significantly stronger humanitarian attitudes toward patients and patient care while also being significantly lower on measures for cynicism than their freshmen compeers. Alpha University differed principally from the two state colleges in that clinical experiences were provided in university teaching hospitals and that a much higher proportion of its nursing faculty held doctorates.

It was recommended that concerted effort be made in the curriculum in nursing education to foster humanitarian attitudes while countering cynical attitudes on the part of students.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-10, Section: B, page: 4238.

Thesis (ED.D.)--RUTGERS THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY - NEW BRUNSWICK, 1988.

School code: 0190.