Evaluation of Nursing Students’ Sociotropic-Autonomic Personality Characteristics and Their Orientation to Care Roles

AIM: In this study, the aim is to evaluate student nurses’ sociotropic-autonomic personality traits and orientation to the caring role in line with these advancements and requirements in the profession. METHOD: This descriptive study included 372 nursing students studying in the 2018-2019 spring term. A 9-question questionnaire, 60-item Sociotropy Autonomy Scale and 24-item Nursing Care Role Orientation Scale were used to collect data. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum were applied. An independent sample t-test was used to compare the means of two independent groups and a one-way ANOVA test was used to compare more than two independent groups. Written consent was obtained from the participants. RESULTS: It was determined that the total Sociotropy Autonomy Scale (SAS) average score of the students was 152.35 ± 19.96 while the total score of the Nursing Care Role Orientation Scale (NCROS) was 79.48 ± 7.51. In addition, there were significant differences in SAS score averages related to age, gender, parental education status, and parental attitudes. Meaningful differences were also found in the total scores of NCROS according to age, gender, class grade, mother’s education level, and willingness to choose the nursing department. There was no statistically significant correlation between SAS total score and NCROS total score (p > .05). CONCLUSION: In line with the results obtained from the research, it can be recommended that the courses which can contribute to the orientation of the students to the sociotropic and autonomic personality characteristics and the orientation of nursing care roles contents should be developed, and the training and activities of awareness should be conducted.