Altruism, honesty and religiosity in nursing students.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To identify, at different stages of nursing education, the extent to which nursing students appreciate altruism, honesty, religiosity and other, sometimes contrasting, values in practice.

BACKGROUND: Nursing is informed by values that guide care ethos and activities. Embodiment of these core values has become a matter of concern. Reports outlining deficiencies in health care followed by polemics in nursing journals have called into question whether nursing students are sufficiently motivated by values and educated in their application. This study explores these values among undergraduate nursing students in the Republic of Ireland. Considering the strong religious tradition in health care in Ireland, religiosity was also included.

DESIGN: A link to an online survey was distributed via email to all nursing students in the thirteen Schools of Nursing in the Republic of Ireland.

METHOD: Quantitative data were collected using an adaptation of the Salford-Scott (Journal of Advanced Nursing, 57(8), 2007, 366) Nursing Values Questionnaire.

RESULTS: Participants (n = 158) reported positively to statements related to honesty and altruism. Both altruism and religiosity received support, but the latter was to a lesser extent. Students considered their professionalism more important than altruism, and honesty varied according to the situation.

CONCLUSIONS: This study adds new information by confirming that students exhibit support for two of the most essential values in nursing: altruism and honesty. The adapted Salford-Scott instrument has shown reliability and promise in further empirical study in nursing.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Priority given to professionalism over altruism reflects concerns highlighted in the international literature around overly task-oriented care in which compassion gets lost. Also, when loyalty supersedes honesty, problems with accountability in health care may emerge. Uncertainty around religiosity in health care may reflect limitations in competence in nurses to relate to patients with religions or spirituality other than their own.