Examining professional values among nursing students during education: A comparative study

Background: For nursing students, close monitoring of the appropriate development of their professional values is an important educational objective, since it may influence crucial areas such as safety and quality of care. Research aims: first, to find development of specific professional values of students at different educational stages characterized by variation in learning methods; second, to examine professional values of nursing students related to their sociodemographic characteristics. Methods: The research consisted 261 students that were were divided into three groups based on educational level: novice, advanced, and senior students. Data were collected using the Revised Nurses’ Professional Values Scale. Results: The research showed statistically significant differences were found between three groups with different levels of education and in domains of professional values such as caring, activism, and justice. However, no statistically significant differences between nursing student sociodemographic characteristics such as age, gender, status, and education and their professional values overall. Conclusions: It can be concluded that nursing education has a significant effect on development of professional values, especially in the basic training phase, and there is a need to emphasize the application and practice of nursing values, particularly caring, activism, and justice, in theoretical courses.