The relationship between personality characteristics and adherence to professional values among nursing students

Background: Professional values are the core of developing professional identity and among the determining factors behind nurses' professional practice. Adherence to professional values seems to be affected by personality characteristics.Objectives: This study aimed to assess the relationship between personality characteristics and adherence to professional values among nursing students. Methods: This descriptive correlational study was conducted on 200 nursing students recruited from Urmia Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Urmia, Iran. Study data were collected using the Holland's Personality Questionnaire and the Nurses Professional Values Scale-Revised and were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: Participants' closest adherence to professional values was related to the dimensions of trust (particularly the item "Maintain competency in area of practice") and caring (particularly the item "Maintain confidentiality of patient"). Their poorest adherence was to the dimensions of professionalism (particularly the item "Participate in peer review") and activism (particularly the item "Participate in nursing research and/or implement research findings appropriate to practice"). The social personality type had significant relationships with all dimensions of adherence to professional values, while the investigative personality type had significant relationships only with the caring (P = 0.021) and the justice (P = 0.013) dimensions. Moreover, the artistic personality type had significant relationships with the trust (P < 0.001), professionalism (P = 0.004), and caring (P = 0.001) dimensions.Conclusion: Personality characteristics have significant relationships with adherence to professional values among nursing students. Therefore, personality characteristics is suggested to be considered as a main criterion for the recruitment of new students to nursing. Keywords: Nursing, Personality, Professional values, Studen

First and Fourth-Year Student’s Perceptions about Importance of Nursing Care Behaviors: Socialization toward Caring

Introduction: The essence of professional nursing is caring and so, nursing education must make caring as a significant part of their curricula. In this regard, little research exists about how nursing students perceive caring. The aim of this study is to investigate the nursing students' perception toward caring and thus, the impact of socialization process on their perception of caring will be determined. Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among all first and fourth-year nursing students (n=230) in Tabriz and Urmia faculties of nursing, 2012. Data were collected using Larson’s Caring Questionnaire that assessed the importance of nursing care behaviors (n=50) in six dimensions: "being accessible", "explains and facilitates", "comforts", "anticipates", "trusting relationship" and "monitors and follows through". Results: The importance of caring behaviors was evaluated by the first and fourth-year nursing students in moderate to high level and also, the both groups considered higher ranks for "monitors and follows through" and "being accessible" and lower ranks for "anticipates" and "trusting relationships". The fourth-year students only ranked "explains and facilitates" higher than the first-year students, but the "comforts" dimension is not differed significantly between groups.Conclusion: The findings demonstrated that nursing education in this study has not likely succeeded in producing intended changes in the nursing students' perceptions. It is recommended to exactly find the perceptual changes or in principle the professional socialization process of nursing students, more research using longitudinal designs be conducted to examine the differences in students' perceptions of caring upon entering and completing the nursing program