General and professional values of student nurses and nurse educators.

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore and compare the self-reported general and professional values in undergraduate student nurses and nurse educators in Lithuania.

BACKGROUND: Contemporary nursing requires strong moral motivation and clear values as nurses confront many ethical dilemas in their practice. Students acquire essential values of the nursing profession through the appropriate role modelling of their educators. Nursing students seek to become capable in providing ethical and professional patient care while their educators attempt to model desired behaviours.

DESIGN: A national cross-sectional comparative study was carried out in March 2011. Four-hundred eight respondents participated: 316 undergraduate nursing students and 92 nurse educators.

METHODS: A 57-item questionnaire was delivered to nursing programs at three universities and six colleges. Permission to conduct the study was granted by The Center on Bioethics.

RESULTS: Student nurses and their educators rated the general value of altruism equally. Educators, in comparison with students, ranked honesty and intellectualism significantly higher and more often admired truth-telling in any circumstance. Students were more likely to avoid intellectual challenges in reading and placed lower importance on academic qualifications for career advancement. The professional nursing values of honesty, intellectualism and authority were ranked significantly higher by nurse educators than student nurses.

CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed differences in self-reported general and professional values in undergraduate student nurses and nurse educators. The values of nurse educators were not always stronger than those of students. Positive relationships between particular general and professional values in both students and educators confirmed the link between professional and personal values.