Dimensions of Nursing Students' Attitudes toward the Nurse-Patient Relationship in a Patient-Education Setting

The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions of nursing students' attitudes toward the nurse-patient relationship in a patient-education context. Principal factor analysis of the responses from 109 subjects to a 65-item inventory yielded six interpretable factors, three having an “expressive” (patient-centered) orientation and three with a “non-expressive” (authoritarian) orientation. Results suggest that nurses may incorporate both expressive and non-expressive elements into their philosophies of nursing without perceived inconsistency.