UK student nurses' education values: a three-centre study

1
UK student nurses' education values a
three-centre study

• Carol Haigh, Senior
• Lecturer in Research
• Natalie Yates-Bolton,
• Lecturer in Nursing
• Martin Johnson,
• Professor in Nursing,
• School of Nursing,
• University of Salford, UK

2
What are Values?

• A cognitive and emotional disposition towards a
  person, object or idea.
• Attitudes are similar, but more specific.
  Measurement of attitudes can suggest strength
  that values are held

3
How are values adopted?

• Genetic disposition (Dawkins)
• Species altruism, Selfish Gene
• Behaviourism and Social Learning Theory (Bandura)
• Modelling and perceived reward/status
• Existential/humanist (Raths)
• Values chosen, freely from alternatives

4
Background

• Gerard Fealy (2004, Irish Context)
• Quotes from Attitude surveys
• the nurse who is good at theory is rarely good
  at the practical side of nursing (McGowan 1980,
  p. 94).
• university education was not appropriate for
  nurses (Scanlan 1991)
• Underlying these views are values

5
Approaches to the study of values

• Sprangers (1928) Types of men.
• Theoretical, Economic, Aesthetic, Social,
  Political, Religious
• Theoretical since the interests of the
  theoretical man (sic) are empirical, critical and
  rational, he is necessarily an intellectualist,
  frequently a scientist or a philosopher. (Vernon
  and Allport 1931, p233)
• Allport, Vernon and Lindzey (1960) values
  instrument draws on this, used by several nurse
  researchers

6
Early studies of educational values

• In a UK study Singh (1971) compared students on
  experimental courses (e.g. combined degree/SRN)
  and Diploma/SRN) courses with traditional SRN
  students but found no statistically significant
  difference on the theoretical value.

Experimental 29.96
SRN 30.24
Difference - 0.28
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Singh (1971)

• However when he compared experimental students
  (N 229) with non-nursing female undergaduates
  (N 147) he found a notable and statistically
  significant difference
• (p lt 0.001)

Experimental students 29.96
Female undergraduates 33.80
8
In the USA

• ONeill (1973) found the opposite (p lt 0.1)

Values General College Students N 1289 Nursing students N 459
Mean Mean
Theoretical 35.7 37.5
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Research Questions

• Do student nurses educational values vary
  between different universities?
• Do educational values in student nurses differ by
  programme of study?
• Do educational values in student nurses change
  across time?

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Sample

• 3 universities
• Southern, Russell, Riverside
• Pre-registration students (n1133)
• Diploma n835
• Degree n287
• (11 missing responses on this variable)

11
Methods 1
William A Scott General Values Instrument (1959).
This is a Likert Scale Instrument measuring
general attitudes
Honesty Religiousness Intellectualism Self
Control Academic Achievement Independence
Altruism
Nursing specific items added which included the
Scott categories plus 2 other - Paternalism and
Authority
A sub set of variables focusing upon general and
professional educational values is the focus of
this presentation. We report on altruism and
honesty (Johnson, Haigh and Yates-Bolton JAN, 57,
4, 366-374)
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Educational values subset - Scott

• Reading only things that dont pose any
  intellectual challenge (S2)
• Working hard to do well academically (S4)
• Ignoring lectures and text-books that are
  difficult (S7)
• Not letting studies interfere with ones social
  life (S24)
• Striving hard to get the top marks in the group
  (S27)
• Being interested only in ones work (S34)

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Educational values subset - Johnson

• Little has been gained by educating nurses in a
  University rather than a Hospital School of
  Nursing (J5)
• Nursing should be a highly educated profession
  like Medicine and Law (J8)
• Academic qualifications should not be important
  to nursing career advancement (J16)

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Methods 2

• Ethical approval obtained from participating
  organisations
• Student questionnaire administered in class time
  20 minutes. Investigators not particularly
  involved with programme
• Ordinal data was analysed using SPSS
• Descriptive stats
• Correlation
• MANOVA

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Demographics - Gender
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Demographics - age ranges
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Educational Demographics - NVQ
18
Educational Demographics entry level GSCE,O A
level
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Educational Demographics - degree
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Educational values relationships by university -
1

• The relationship between university and
  admiration for those who do not let studies
  interfere with social life was investigated
• There was a small weak negative statistically
  significant correlation between the two variables
  rs -.101 n 1133 p .001
• This gives of coefficient of determination of 1
• This suggests that students who attended
  Riverside university were more likely to admire
  this behaviour

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Educational values relationships by university- 2

• The relationship between university and
  admiration for those who strive hard to get the
  top marks was investigated
• There was a weak statistically significant
  correlation between the two variables rs .202
  n 1133 p lt.001 giving a coefficient of
  determination of 4
• This suggests that students who attended
  Riverside university were more likely to admire
  this behaviour

22
Educational values relationships by programme of
study - 1

• The relationship between programme of study and
  admiration for those who strive hard to get the
  top marks was investigated
• There was a small weak positive statistically
  significant correlation between the two variables
  rs .133 n 1133 p lt.001 giving a coefficient
  of determination of 1.7
• This suggests that students who were enrolled on
  degree programmes were more likely to admire this
  behaviour

23
Educational values relationships by programme of
study - 2

• The relationship between programme of study and
  agreement with the statement Nursing should be a
  highly educated profession like Medicine and Law
  was investigated
• There was a weak positive statistically
  significant correlation between the two variables
  rs .104 n 1133 p lt.001 giving a coefficient
  of determination of 1.0
• This suggests that students who were enrolled on
  degree programmes were more likely to agree with
  this stance

24
Educational values relationships by year of study
- 1

• The relationship between year of study and
  admiration for those who ignore lectures and
  text-books that are difficult was investigated
• There was a weak negative statistically
  significant correlation between the two variables
  rs -.166 n 1133 p lt.001 giving a coefficient
  of determination of 2
• This suggests that third year students were less
  likely to admire this behaviour

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Educational values relationships by year of study
- 2

• The relationship between year of study and the
  variable little has been gained by educating
  nurses in a University rather than a Hospital
  School of Nursing was investigated
• There was a weak negative statistically
  significant correlation between the two variables
  rs -.125 n 1133 p lt.001 giving a coefficient
  of determination of 1.5
• This suggests that third year students were less
  likely to agree with this statement

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MANOVA

• Multivariate tests for statistical significance
  between groups by
• University
• Programme of Study
• Year of study
• Used Pillais trace as test of statistically
  significant differences between groups because of
  differences in sample sizes
• Because this used multiple comparisons we applied
  a Bonferroni adjustment which gave a new
  probability value of .007

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Working hard to do well academicallyDiploma and
Degree
admire

• Overall students on both programmes viewed
  working hard to do well academically less
  positively by the third year. (Diploma M 4.78,
  4.74,4.70) (Degree M 4.85, 4.83,4.64)
• Southern Diploma held opposite view in year 3 (M
  4.64, 4.60.4.79)
• Impact on life long learning

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Studying hard to get good marks in tests and exams
admire

• Overall Diploma and Degree students viewed
  studying hard to get good marks in tests and
  exams less favourably in the third year.
• Exception Southern Diploma students

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Between subjects effects

• For the sub set educational values
• University accounted for 3.6 of variance
  (p.001)
• Programme of study accounted for 6.1 of variance
  (pgt.001)
• Year of study accounted for 3.2 of variance
  (pgt.001)

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Conclusions

• There were some variable specific differences
  between the student groups
• There was values congruence across the diploma
  groups as there was across the degree groups
• The biggest difference between the student groups
  was accounted for by programme of study.
• For some educational values there was no evidence
  of improvement over time
• Many students are leaving nurse education with
  less intellectual enthusiasm than with which they
  entered.

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Thank you

• Carol Haigh
• c.a.haigh_at_salford.ac.uk
• Natalie Yates-Bolton
• n.yates-bolton_at_salford.ac.uk
• Martin Johnson
• m.johnson2_at_salford.ac.uk