Perspektiv i sjuksköterskeutbildningen. Hur en grupp studerandes uppfattning av sjuksköterskans yrke förändras under tre år av utbildning

Sammanfattning: This study is built around the following research question: "How do student nurses conceptions regarding their future profession change during their training in the three year nursing programme?" The study is longitudinal in character and consists of qualitative interviews conducted with eighteen students belonging to the same nursing class. The students were interviewed on four occasions during the nursing programme. The data collection started in the spring 1992, when the students were admitted to the programme, and ceased in the spring 1995 when the education was completed. The research approach chosen for the thesis is phenomenography, and the method used is contextual analysis. The result is described in the form of four interim studies, where the students' conceptions of the nursing profession are presented in categories. The different categories can be brought together to form two main categories, describing an 'instrumental conception' and a 'relational conception' of the nursing profession. The 'instrumental conception' is linked to a medical perspective on the nursing profession, which coincides with how today's medical care is organised, while the 'relational conception' is linked to a social and behavioural science perspective, which corresponds with the direction given in the curriculum. However, irrespective of which category of conception they belong to, all student nurses relate the nurse's interventions to the patient's well-being. It was not possible to identify a pattern in the students' development or change of perspective during their education. However, it is mainly the male students (5/6) who represent the relational conception, while the female students (8/10) represent the instrumental conception. The results show that nursing education does not lead to a unitary conception of the nursing profession, since the students, due to their preunderstanding and earlier acquired perspectives, conceive the different aspects of the profession in qualitatively disparate ways.