Professional values in nursing students in Jordan: baccalaureate nursing students’ perception

Abstract Objective Baccalaureate degree curricula consist of several professional values required for nursing students, which are taught in many ways. This study aimed to explore the perception of baccalaureate Jordanian nursing students regarding professional values and to assess the relationship between students’ demographics and their perception of professional values. Methods The study design was a descriptive, cross-sectional correlational design. A convenience sample of 182 Jordanian undergraduate nursing students enrolled at one of the most prominent universities in Jordan who completed and submitted a self-administered Nurses’ Professional Values Scale (NPVS) was considered for this study. Results The NPVS total score ranged from 37 to 130, with a relatively high total score mean (99.68 with a mean of 3.83 out of 5). The highest score domain in NPVS was “Justice” with a mean of 3.97, while the lowest ranked domain was “Activism” with a mean of 3.69. The correlation coefficient showed no statistically significant correlation between age nor accumulative students’ average with a total score of Nurses Professional Values Scale-revised (NPVS-R) and its subdomains. The t test results showed that gender and type of students’ enrollment (regular vs. upgrading) did not affect the means of NPVS-R and its subdomains. But differences were found to be statistically significant between the means of first year students and fourth year students in the total score of NPVS-R. Conclusions Findings of the study alert nursing educators to pay more attention to the importance of promoting the values related to “activism” and “professionalism” among nursing students. Suggestions for enhancing the roles of peer supervision and providing peer review to colleagues would contribute to improving nursing students’ performance and raising self-awareness because when nursing educators pay more attention to the items of these domains, better future nursing professionals, leaders, and researchers can be gained. Also, understanding nursing students’ perceptions of the importance of professional values and the difficulties in its application would be vital to enlighten educators about the areas that need improvement.