Abstract

Aim of study. The aim of this study was to uncover the essence of commitment and develop a description and understanding of what it means when nursing students perceive commitment to the profession's values and beliefs by nurse educators. ;The students' perceptions of educators committed to nursing's values and beliefs, and those who were not, calls attention to the importance of the teacher-student relationship. It was essential to determine if students perceived professors to be committed to the profession's values and beliefs since faculty could influence the students' conceptualization of nursing practice. ;Method. Since the phenomenon lacked both description and investigation in nursing and educational literature, the phenomenological method produced a rich descriptive data base. Unstructured interviews were used with twenty-three senior generic student volunteers from both a private and public baccalaureate nursing program. The researcher was not familiar with the program's curriculum, faculty, students, or graduates. Using a method developed by van Manen , thematic aspects gleaned from selected participant verbatim statements led to a linguistic transformation which resulted in a description of the educator's commitment to the profession's values and beliefs as perceived by nursing students. ;Findings. The description revealed participants' perceptions of professors whose behaviors demonstrated commitment and those who did not. Equally as significant were the findings describing how professors' behavior influenced the educational experience for the student. This study has produced an understanding of the phenomenon of commitment that previously did not exist within nursing science or nursing education prior to this study. ;Implications for nursing. Findings from this study have great significance for nursing education, practice, theory development and research. Educators can receive direction in developing curriculums which identify and foster commitment at the undergraduate and graduate level. Faculty can benefit from a heightened awareness of how their behaviors reveal their commitment to the profession's values and beliefs. Direction for further research indicates exploring how nursing's values and beliefs are manifest in students and, how the professor-student relationship influences the students' educational experience and the integration of the values and beliefs into their conceptualization of nursing practice