The nurse: A helping personality?

Abstract

Today nursing as a profession offers a wide variety of specialties which requires varying degrees of direct nurse-patient interaction. The purpose of this study was to determine what personality factors correlated to student nurses' preferences to be more patient oriented as opposed to technique oriented in their approach to their work. It was discovered that the patient-oriented group was composed of two subgroups. One subgroup contained student nurses who were rather self-actualized while the other subgroup was motivated toward a patient orientation to nursing by a need to submit to others. Similarly, the technique oriented student nurses were also found to be composed of two subgroups. One subgroup's technique orientation sprang from a need to remain detached and reserved in social situations while the other subgroup's technique orientation was based on a need to dominate and lead others. The results of this research tend to lend credence to the thesis that behavioral functions may be motivated by a variety of personality factors.