Assessment of Professional Values Among Iranian Nursing Students Graduating in Universities With Different Norms of Educational Services

Background: Values used by the nursing profession are essential in order to maintain high standards of the nursing care. Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the perspective of nursing students from type Ι and III universities of medical sciences about professional values of nursing in Iran. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional survey, we investigated the professional values of nursing profession among 240 B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) in nursing students randomly selected from three type I and five type III universities in Iran in 2011. A two-part questionnaire containing demographic features and the Nursing Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R) developed by Weis and Schank with 26 Likert-scale items was used after translation and validation. Results: The mean scores of the NPVS-R items on the five point Likert-type scales for students of type Ι ranged from 2.79 to 4.08. Also, the mean scores of items for the students of type III ranged from 3.03 to 4.43. The most important and least important items identified by the participants of type I universities were the “maintain competency in area of practice “and “participate in peer review”, respectively. The most important and least important items identified by the participants of type III universities were the “maintain confidentiality of patient” and “participate in public policy decisions affecting distribution of resources”, respectively. Examination of the participants by families’ economic condition revealed significant differences in some of the scores about the NPVS-R statements (P 0.05). Conclusions: The present study did not show any significant difference between perspectives of students studying in type I and III universities regarding nursing professional values. Moreover, both groups of nursing students rated the values directly related to patient care as the most important. Integrated planning and teaching methods is required to enhance all fields of the professional values in nursing.