Nimet Ovayolu Özlem Ovayolu Ayşe Talayhan

Aim: Educational process is the starting point for transferring and learning professional values and this development continues in the professional socialization process of students after graduation. This study was conducted in order to determine development of the professional values of nursing students.

Method: The descriptive study was conducted with students studying in the department of nursing, faculty of health sciences at a public university. While the population of the study consisted of all nursing students studying in the faculty; the sample consisted of a total of 330 second-third-and-fourth year students who agreed to participate in the study. Informed consent from students and written permission from the institution were obtained before starting to conduct the study. The data of the study were collected by using a questionnaire and the Professional Values Scale. Total scores to be obtained from the scale vary between 26 and 130 and high scores signify a high adaptation to professional values. The acquired data were evaluated through student t and one way anova test.

Outcomes: It was determined that 66.7% of the students were in the age range of 17-21 years, 75.8% women, 47.0% were the second-year students, 47.3% had selected their profession “partially” voluntarily and 33.6% considered their profession as a “holy profession”. It was also determined that the mean score obtained by the students from the Professional Values Scale was 98.2±16.9. As a result of the analyses, it was found that those who were the fourth-year students and in the age group of 22-26 years had the highest score of professional value; whereas, those who defined the profession as “a profession perceived like a subsidiary personnel” and were graduated from vocational high school of health had the lowest score of professional value (p<0.05). There was no correlation between selecting the profession voluntarily and the scores of professional values.

Conclusion and Recommendations: It was determined that the students had moderate scores of professional values and the fourth-year students had better perceptions and behaviors concerning professional values. Thus, it is recommended to support students in terms of the formation and development of professional values as from the beginning of their undergraduate education.

Keywords: Nursing, professional values, nursing students

Correspondence: Özlem Ovayolu, PhD, RN, Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Science, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey (oucan@gantep.edu.tr).