Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 34, Issue 9, September 2014, Pages 1196-1200
Nurse Education Today

Nursing students' personal qualities: A descriptive study

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.05.004Get rights and content

Summary

Background

Reports of a lack of compassionate care from nurses have resulted in calls to integrate the assessment of personal qualities into nursing student selection, with the intent to recruit individuals whose attributes reflect those desired in the practising nurse. Whilst nursing programmes are able to determine students' academic abilities on enrolment limited attention has been given to other qualities. Although there is an understanding of the qualities desired in the practising nurse, to date there has been limited exploration of nursing students' personal qualities as they enter nursing programmes and whether these change over time.

Aims

To describe the personal qualities of newly enrolled Bachelor of Nursing students, and to determine if these qualities are age and gender specific and whether they change over time.

Methods

The Personal Qualities Assessment (PQA; www.pqa.net.au) was completed by 138 nursing students on enrolment and repeated after three years.

Results

Twenty four percent of students had PQA scores at the extreme ends (± 2 SD) of the continuum of one or more sub-scale distributions. Significant positive correlations were found between age and the PQA measured traits: self-control, resilience, narcissism, empathy and moral orientation. Females were significantly more conscientious, community orientated and involved; males had significantly higher narcissism and aloofness scores and lower empathy. For those students (n = 28) who completed the follow-up PQA, their personal qualities scores did not change.

Conclusion

Most of the study sample possessed mid-range personal quality trait scores, but approximately a quarter of the nursing students recorded extreme scores. Older students were found to have a higher measure of self-control, resilience, empathy and narcissism and more communitarian in attitude. Significant differences were found between males' and females' scores. That personal qualities were unchanged after three years suggests the importance of incorporating the assessment of these qualities into selection and recruitment of nursing students.

Introduction

The Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry was undertaken to investigate “appalling” care provided in a major hospital in Stafford, England (Francis, 2013, p. 3). Two hundred and ninety recommendations were made as a result of this inquiry. One strategy proposed to engender compassionate care in Stafford was to recruit nurses with values, attitudes and behaviours that reflect a compassionate approach to care (Francis, 2013). Poor care is not exclusive to Stafford, with reports of poor care in other areas of the United Kingdom (UK) (Fielding et al., 2010) and Australia (Egan, 2013). Along with this, literature continues to identify the presence of nursing students who demonstrate unprofessional attitudes and behaviours (Duffy, 2003, Luhanga et al., 2008). Many consider that selection criteria could be modified so as to recruit students who possess the personal qualities desired in a registered nurse and improve students' academic and clinical performance (Perkins et al., 2013, Pitt et al., 2014, Wolf, 2012).

Section snippets

Background

It is acknowledged that nurses require academic knowledge, the cognitive skills with which to apply that knowledge and a range of non-academic personal qualities (Catlett and Lovan, 2011, Wolf, 2012). Deficiencies in the latter may contribute substantially to unprofessional and unethical behaviours that have the potential to harm patients (Francis, 2013, Wolf, 2012). Unprofessional behaviours include a lack of empathy and compassion (Karlsson et al., 2004) and extend to sexual abuse (Bachmann

Aim

The aim of this study was to provide a description of the personal qualities of a sample of Australian nursing students commencing a three year Bachelor of Nursing (BN) programme; identify significant differences in personal qualities in relation to age and gender and investigate the stability of these personal qualities over time.

Method

This descriptive study forms part of a larger longitudinal descriptive correlational study using convenience sampling which examined the factors impacting on nursing students' clinical and academic performance and progression. This study used a descriptive design to explore the personal qualities of a sample of BN students from one Australian university where selection was based solely on prior academic performance. Following ethics approval from the University's Human Research Ethics Committee

Results

From a population of 517 students entering their first year of the BN, 139 consented to participate. Although only one quarter (26.8%) of the population of students was recruited the sample reflected the gender and age distribution of the BN population as a whole. Of the 139 participants most were female (86%), with a mean age of 27 years (range 18–53); the 517 students enrolled in year 1 of the BN in 2009 had similar age (mean 27.8 years) and gender (87.6% female) distribution.

Of the 139

Discussion

The recent Mid-Staffordshire inquiry (Francis, 2013) recommended that individuals recruited into nursing programmes should be in “possession of the appropriate values, attitudes and behaviours” (p. 1539) required for the delivery of competent and compassionate care. Yet, at present, no quantitative tool exists to provide schools of nursing with a description of the personal qualities of current nursing students and whether those qualities change after progressing through pre-registration

Study Limitations

Limitations of this study include the use of convenience sampling resulting in a small sample. A well-known consequence of convenience sampling is the use of volunteers and the difficulty in obtaining sufficient numbers (Schneider et al., 2003). Some students reported an interest in the research but highlighted that study commitments, feeling overwhelmed by commencing university and the length of time to complete the survey (2 h) as reasons for preventing them from consenting to participate. The

Conclusion

Nursing students need to possess the personal qualities that are reflective of a safe and compassionate nursing professional. Utilising a battery of personal qualities measures most of the study sample was found to possess mid-range personal quality trait scores, but approximately a quarter of the students entered the Bachelor of Nursing programme with extreme scores in one or other traits measured by PQA. This sample was found to be broadly comparable to another nursing sample, though was more

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      Information in the literature was limited regarding personal qualities of mature aged undergraduate nursing students (Walker et al., 2014a), while the influence of gender, culture, and the method of learning (internal or distance) on personal qualities of undergraduate student nurses appears not to have been addressed at all. That said, previous research has found a positive link between personal qualities and academic progression (Pitt et al., 2014b), while the development of a nursing identity (Walker et al., 2014b), and the implementation of strategies to improve students WIL experience (Pitt et al., 2014a; Levett-Jones et al., 2015; Carr et al., 2018) have been shown to assist undergraduate nursing students develop personal qualities prior to WIL. Interestingly, a recent study by Levett-Jones et al. (2015) that utilised survey methods to explore nursing students' perceptions prior to their first WIL experience, found that strategies implemented to develop qualities to succeed at WIL may have had the reverse effect and add to the students' anxiety and stress.

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    Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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