A study of nursing student values

Abstract

THE PURPOSE of this study is to compare the values of nursing and other student groups and to investigate the relationship of nursing student values to faculty values. Considerable controversy was initiated by Jacob@) in 1957 on the publication of Changing ~ulues in College, which reported that for the most part student values do not change during the college experience. The report states that there was a striking homogeneity of student values throughout the country and that to an extraordinary degree student values were the same whatever they were studying and whatever the stage of their college career. A general conclusion of the report was that, except for a few institutions, neither the college experience, the curriculum, nor the faculty seemed to provide impetus for change in student values. Feldman and Newcomb@) in The Impact of College Students, a more recent summary of research, report that changes in student values do indeed take place during the college experience and that there are differences in student values at different types of institutions, in different curricular fields, and at different stages in the college program. There seems to be justification for recognizing that Jacob’s conclusion as to the impact of college fails to differentiate adequately among the studies. The longitudinal studies at Bennington College by Newcomb and at Vassar by Sanford et al. (*), carry the same weight as short term, simplistic comparisons between students exposed or not exposed to a particular course in human relations. There is also the question of the change in values of the larger society during and since the period of the Jacob report. The point is made by Freedman(*) that students are products of traditional American culture and as people respond to the present condition of American society. What happens in our colleges is very much a function of what is happening in our American society at large. That students select different curricular fields as a way of entering different occupations seems evident. When the adolescent chooses an occupational field, he is likely to incorporate aspects of his future occupational status into his present self image. Over a period of time he tends to develop values which are appropriate for a person in that occupation, e.g. a physician should want to alleviate suffering. This image of the future occupational status is likely to influence the individual’s present attitudes, values and behavior. He may start to think and behave in a way which he