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Continuing and inservice educators recognize that our society is faced with ever-increasing ferment over the quality of health care services. The gap between consumer expectations and delivery of health services will remain a problem for years to come. Health care workers themselves readily admit that there is need for improvement in "quality of care." Yet this phrase may remain an empty one unless increasing consideration is given to the personal development of the helpers involved, a great many of them nurses. A general dictum among people helpers says that in order to become more effective one must begin with one's self - the quality of care given by an individual will be consistent with the kind of person that individual is. Paradoxically, nursing has long had a passionate interest in the selfconcept of patients but has not manifested interest in the self-concept of nursing practitioners as persons.
Though the nursing profession comprises the largest group of persons engaged in a helping relationship, comparatively few studies have been done regarding the selfconcept of nurses, particularly graduate nurses. An overview of these studies may provide insights for those who design educational offerings. Further, it will serve as background for the more recent study reported here.
Poland (1961) studied the relationship between self-concept and supervisory and peer ratings with success in nurses' training using a self-descriptive inventory. No significant correlations were found when the group was analyzed in total. When subjects were divided into two groups (most successful and least successful, based on nursing supervisor ratings) it was determined that the most successful students had obtained higher scores on the self-descriptive inventory.
Kormorita (7977,) in her study of the selfconcept of nursing students using 12 measures from Bills Index of Adjustment and Values found significant differences on three of the measures according to year in school. Nine of the 12 self-concept measures correlated with grades of these were more frequently related to clinical grades than to theory grades.
The self-concept has been studied in relation to academic achievement with the majority of investigators finding a positive relationship (Fitts, 1972). In addition, findings cited by Thompson (1972) indicate that good interpersonal communication is associated with a well integrated sellconcept.
Frerichs, (1972) found a significant relationship between age and self-esteem...