Kontakt 2011, 13(2):148-156 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2011.019

Pro-social behaviour and nursingNursing

Ľubica Bánovčinová^*, Milina Bubeníková

Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Jesseniova lekárska fakulta v Martine, Ústav nelekárskych študijných programov

In helping professions including nursing, the planned form of the help is a characteristic feature. The target of our survey was mapping of the occurrence of the pro-social behaviour or pro-social personality in a selected sample of students and nurses. The sample included 245 respondents: 143 students of the regular form of the bachelor study in the branch nursing (age of respondents ranged between 19 and 25 years, average age was of 20.86 years) and 102 nurses employed as healthcare professionals (average age 36.06 years, the lowest age was of 23 years and the highest age was of 52 years). For the identification of the pro-social behaviour we employed the Questionnaire "Prosocial Tendencies Measure" and Questionnaire of the pro-social personality "Prosocial Personality Battery".
There were significant differences between the groups followed in the pro-social tendencies (students 72.52, nurses 75.32), in anonymous pro-social behaviour (students 12.26, nurses 13.53), in behaviour in emergency situations (students 10.76, nurses 11.48), in the social responsibility (students 50.91, nurses 52.48), in accepting the perspective (students 22.57, nurses 24.45), in subjectively perceived altruism (students 34.93, nurses 40.38), in Factor 1 - Empathy focused on other people (students 128.9, nurses 133.58) and in Factor 2 - Helpfulness (students 21.67, nurses 27.69). In these subscales, nurses achieved higher average scores. There was also a difference in the subscale of the personal discomfort (students 14.21, nurses 12.98) in favour of students.
The interest in helping other people and usefulness are frequently the main motivating factors in the choice of the school and profession where the helping activity stands as the main component. In the course of the education and practice, particular components can be, however, developed and changed in positive as well as negative directions, thus affecting the work of the nurse. Thus, increased attention should be paid to these changes with supporting these valuable characters.

Keywords: pro-social behaviour; pro-social personality; nursing students; nurses

Received: January 13, 2011; Accepted: May 4, 2011; Published: June 20, 2011  Show citation