Comparison of Nursing Students’ Professional Behavior to Nurses Employed in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: An important part of nurse’s professional behavior forms during academic education and develops throughout professional career. Therefore comparing professional behavior of freshmen and seniors at graduation with that of nurses can illustrate the formation and development of professional behavior at the time of formal and informal nursing education. This study was conducted to compare professional behavior of nursing students to that of nurses employed in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study of trend type, study population included all freshmen and senior nursing students of school of nursing and midwifery in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences as well as nurses employed in hospitals affiliated to this university in year 2011 (n=322). Professional behavior of these students and nurses was assessed using modified “nursing student professional behavior” questionnaire of Goze. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using content validity index and its reliability was confirmed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Kruscall-Wallis, and Spearman correlation coefficient. Results: 72 freshman students of clinical nursing (64%), 40 senior nursing students (35%), and 322 nurses formed the sample. The mean score of professional behavior of freshman students was 110/3±17.3 out of total score of 135 and this mean score was 107±12/8 for senior nursing students and 109±12/6 for clinical nurses. The result of Kruscall-Wallis test showed no significant difference among these three groups (p=0.2). Conclusion: Although basic nursing educations prior to clinical education has lead to development of a desirable level of professional behavior in junior nursing students, development of these behaviors did not have an appropriate trend among senior students and employed nurses. Further studies using other ways of assessment are needed to assess nursing students and clinical nurses' professional behavior considering factors promoting professional behavior.