Instruction in Each of Five Nursing Roles and Role Discrepancy Among Associate Degree Nursing Graduates Employed in Hospitals

157 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983.The purpose of this research was to examine the relationship of semester hours of instruction in five role areas in associate degree nursing programs and role discrepancy in the same five areas. Role discrepancy was defined as the difference between that level of role functioning the students expected and the actual level at which they were functioning approximately six months after being employed by hospitals. The five role areas were: management of patient care, patient care, patient teaching, communication, and member of a profession.The original sample included 456 students in 14 associate degree nursing schools and 274 randomly chosen graduates from that same sample for follow-up six months after graduation. A total of 207 of the 274 graduates who were surveyed responded to the second survey and 170 of this group were employed in hospitals. Data from these 170 graduates were analyzed to test the hypotheses of the study.The research design was an explanatory survey with ex-post-facto analysis. Level of expected and actual functioning was determined by the Primm questionnaire which contained scales in each role area, listing nursing roles from a lesser to a higher level of functioning. Content validity was determined by input from 12 associate degree nursing faculty. Reliability was established by coefficient alphas which ranged from .61 to .79 in the five scales.Using the Pearson correlation coefficient, significance at the .001 level was found in the areas of management, patient teaching, and professionalism. There was an inverse relationship between the number of semester hours of instruction in each of these three areas and role discrepancy in the three areas. Role discrepancy was significantly decreased with increased hours of instruction. This was in the opposite direction to that hypothesized for the areas of patient teaching and professionalism, and in the hypothesized direction for the role area of management.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD