Effect of Levels of Nursing Education on Patient Care

To compare levels of performance on a specific task in an attempt to differentiate skills possessed by clinical nurse specialists, baccalaureate nurses, and diploma nurses; to determine if different levels of education make a difference in quality and quantity of patient care; to ascertain if the quality and quantity of patient care declines with increased years of experience; and to compare performance of medical-surgical and psychiatric nurses, 87 subjects—40 clinical nurse specialists, 20 baccalaureate nurses, and 27 diploma nurses—with one to 35 years of experience viewed a 16mm film sequence depicting five patient situations commonly encountered in hospitals. Subjects were asked to observe situations that required care (55 possible observations were included in the film sequence), recommend actions, and list reasons for the actions. Based on number of responses, statistically significant differences indicated the quantity and quality of patient care provided by the clinical nurse specialist was superior to that provided by the baccalaureate nurse and the care provided by the baccalaureate nurse was superior to that provided by the diploma nurse. With increasing years of experience without educational refresher courses, however, the quality and quantity of nursing care by all practitioners was found to decline. When compared with a 1972 study by the same author, findings were similar. In the 1973 study, however, when responses of medical-surgical and psychiatric nurses were compared, the medical-surgical