Operation Concern

To gather information about senior nursing students and to determine whether graduates of different programs present a different quality of nursing care 188 students in three programs-baccalaureate, associate degree, and diploma–in six schools of nursing in the San Francisco area were tested for intellectual characteteristics, leadership, research orientation, and sociopsychological factors. Instruments included the Omnibus Personality inventory (Heist and Yonge, 1968), the Leadership Opinion questionnaire (Flesihman, 1969), the Research scale adapted from the Rosinski (1962) Student Attitude inventory, the Self-Esteem test (Barkasdale, 1972), the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) Registered Nurse Satisfactory Achievement scale (1967), and a Student Biographical inventory. Students in the three types of programs were found to be essentially alike on intellectual characteristics, the consideration aspect of leadership, and self-esteem. They were slightly above average, as compared with other college students, in their concern for the feelings and welfare of people with whom they came in contact and were inclined to be affiliative, trusting, and ethical. They expressed similar degrees of consideration for subordinates and were inclined to respect their ideas. Baccalaureate students rated higher in the area of communication than associate degree or diploma seniors, and they were higher on the structure and autonomy factors of leadership. Diploma students placed highest value on research; baccalaureate students, lowest.