Instruments

multidimensional measures that assess nurses’ motivation to undertake nursing as a career and Professional Self-concept.

4.2.2.1 Nurses’ Motivation Measure. The NMM was based on existing theories of motivation (see Chapter 2). The Career Choice Motivation of nurses was measured using a newly devised three-factor instrument. The subscales or domains were Influence of Others, Status and Job Rewards. Table 4.3 contains a brief description of each

motivational factor, as well as the items in each factor. A detailed explanation of the development of the instrument can be found in Chapter 6. The instrument was designed to measure the Career Choice Motivation of a person who has commenced

undergraduate studies to become a registered nurse.

The NMM made up the first section of the full survey questionnaire. The initial questionnaire contained 35 declarative-type items in five dimensions, subsequently reduced to 12 items in three dimensions (see Chapter 6 for further details). The sentence structure consisted of statements such as, ‘I want to be part of a respected profession’. Participants were asked to respond to the 12 items, with one of eight possible Likert- scale responses from 1 = Strongly disagree (with the declarative statement) to

8 = Definitely agree. A high score in each domain indicates a high endorsement of that motivational factor. Total scores of 2 to 16 for Influence of Others and 5 to 40 for Status and Job Rewards were possible for the 12-item final version. The complete final version of the NMM is shown in Appendix A.

Table 4.3

Summary of the Nurses’ Motivation Scales

Subscale Description of Scale

Influence Of Others Relates to motivation based on the influence

or expectation of others 1. My parents expect me to be a nurse.

2. Nursing was the recommendation of my family.

Status Relates to motivation based on the

professional status of nursing 1. I want to have a career that others admire.

2. I want to be respected for my career.

3. Nursing is highly regarded in the community. 4. Nursing is a highly valued profession.

5. The respected status of nurses is important to me.

Job Rewards Relates to desire to be a nurse based on the

extrinsic rewards 1. I like to earn a good salary.

2. Nursing will offer a steady career. 3. Nursing will provide a reliable income. 4. Nursing will be a secure job.

5. Financial security is very important to me.

4.2.2.2 Nurses’ Self-Concept Measure. The NSCM was based on a

multidimensional theory of self-concept and was modelled on the ANMC Competency Standards (2006) (see Chapter 2). The self-concept of nurses was measured using a newly devised two-factor instrument. The subscales or domains were Care and Competence. Table 4.4 contains a brief description of each dimension, as well as the items in each dimension. A detailed explanation of the development of the instrument can be found in Chapter 7. The instrument was designed to measure the Professional Self-concept of a person who was in the process of becoming a registered nurse.

The NSCM was presented to students in the final section of the full survey questionnaire. The initial makeup of the NSCM contained 49 declarative-type items in four dimensions, subsequently reduced to 10 items and two factors (see Chapter 7 for

further details). The sentence structure consisted of statements such as, ‘I am able to interact with patients in a supportive manner’. There were no negatively worded items in the NSCM. Participants were asked to respond to the 10 items, with one of eight possible Likert-scale responses from 1 = Strongly disagree (with the declarative statement) to 8 = Definitely agree. A total score of 5 to 40 was possible for both Care and Competence in the 10-item final version.The complete final version of the NSCM is shown in Appendix B.

Table 4.4

Summary of the Nurses’ Self-concept Scales

Subscale Description of Scale and Item Wording

Care Relates to the qualities that nurses enact; nursing

character and reputation that build patient trust (being compassionate, fulfilling duty of care by being responsive, and collaborating with colleagues) 1. I communicate effectively with patients.

2. I am able to interact with patients in a supportive manner. 3. I like establishing positive working relationships with colleagues.

4. I like to practise in accordance with legislation governing nursing practice. 5. I know I always fulfil my ethical responsibilities.

Competence Relates to the application of evidence-based practice

to support nurses’ plan of care, to anticipate patient needs, to monitor changes and respond appropriately 1. I am able to interpret assessment data accurately.

2. I use relevant literature to improve my nursing practice.

3. I am comfortable analysing assessment data to make clinical decisions. 4. I am comfortable documenting care plans based on current nursing practice. 5. I regularly take self-evaluation of my own nursing practice.

4.2.2.3 Individualism. Individualism orientation was measured with 11 items taken from Wagner’s (1995) 20-item IC measure. The Wagner (1995) scale

operationalises Individualism as the focus on self over group interests in a group context and was specifically developed to measure the difference between employees’ IC

orientation in the context of cooperation among work colleagues (see Chapter 5). Altogether, the Wagner (1995) IC instrument contains 20 items in five scales (Self- reliance, Competitiveness, Solitary Work Preference, Supremacy of Group Interests, and beliefs about the effects of personal pursuit on group productivity), drawn from a number of other IC scales (e.g., Erez & Early, 1987; Hui, 1988; Triandis et al., 1988; Wagner & Moch, 1986). The Wagner (1995) IC instrument has been validated across a variety of work contexts and cultures such as the United States (Ramamoorthy & Carroll, 1998; Wagner, 1995), Ireland (Ramamoorthy & Flood, 2002) and India (Ramamoorthy, Kulkarni, Gupta & Flood, 2007).

The Wagner (1995) IC instrument was selected for use in this study because of its relevance to working adults. For the purposes of this study, 11 items were selected from across four scales (Self-reliance, Competitiveness, Solitary Work Preference and Supremacy of Group Interests) to measure utilitarian Individualism, based on their relevance to the nursing context. Items that had been originally designed to indicate collectivist orientation (e.g., ‘people in a group should be willing to make sacrifices for the groups’ well-being’) were reverse coded (see Appendix C for item layout) for consistency of meaning and ease of interpretation. Thus, a high score on all 11 items would indicated a more individualist orientation. The 11 items were considered an overall measure of Individualism (see Table 4.5 for a brief description of this scale). A detailed explanation of the reliability and validity of the Individualism instrument can be found in Chapter 5.

The Individualism measure made up the second section of the full survey questionnaire. Participants were asked to respond to the 11 items, with one of seven possible Likert-scale responses from 1 = Strongly disagree to 7 = Strongly agree. Once the five reversed items were corrected and the 11 scores were summed, a score of 11

indicated an extremely low individualist response (Strongly disagree) and a score of 77 indicated an extremely high individualist response (Strongly agree).

Table 4.5

Summary of the 11 IC items adapted from the Wagner (1995) Instrument

Description No. Items Wagner (1995) Subscale

Assesses personal independence and self- reliance

3 Self-reliance

Assesses importance accorded to competitive success

3 Competiveness

Assesses the value attached to working alone 2 Solitary Work Preference

Assesses espousal of norms about group needs over individual interests

3 Supremacy of Group Interests

4.2.3 Research design. The primary research questions posited in this thesis