Role model behaviors in the clinical setting

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the role modeling behaviors of clinical nursing faculty which junior and senior baccalaureate students consider important. Bandura's Social Learning Theory provided the theoretical framework for the three research questions. The first question focused on whether junior and senior baccalaureate nursing students differed in their perceptions of the importance of selected role model behaviors demonstrated by their clinical faculty role models. The second question examined whether there were differences in the role model behaviors that senior and junior nursing students believed they were practicing in the clinical setting. The third question explored whether there were differences in the way junior and senior nursing students perceived rewards for practicing the selected role model behaviors in the clinical setting. A convenience sample of 207 junior and senior generic baccalaureate nursing students from three university schools of nursing responded to the questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of a list of 28 role model behaviors repeated in three sections to correspond to the three research questions. Students responded using a five-point Likert scale appropriately worded for each section of the questionnaire. Using the 28 items on each section of the questionnaire as dependent variables a MANOVA was calculated for each section. No significant differences were found between the juniors and seniors based on the overall scores. To test whether the students rated the sections differently, a repeated measures analysis was computed. Tukey post hoc comparisons indicated that both the juniors and seniors perceived that they were inconsistently rewarded for performing the behaviors that they believed to be important in a faculty role model. The findings of this study indicate that clinical faculty are considered role models by their students. Students perceive themselves as practicing the role model behaviors but they also perceive that the clinical faculty are inconsistent in rewarding them for their attempts to emulate those behaviors considered important. There were no differences between the junior and senior nursing students in the overall ratings of the three sections of the questionnaire. Areas for future research are discussed.