Student Interchangeability In Three-Year and Four-Year Nursing Programs.

This paper reports analyses of measures of interests and personality, scores on aptitude and achievement tests, and data on personal and background variables, from a national longitudinal survey which included first-year nursing students and recent nursing graduates. Nurses in three-year diploma programs are shown to exhibit aptitude, achievement, interests, and personality traits similar to girls in four-year baccalaureate programs. However, girls in diploma programs have neither the necessary goal-orientation nor often the economic means to substitute a four-year program for a three-year one. While the national need for professional nurses is increasing rapidly, if efforts are not undertaken to compensate for these differences among nursing students, and if the current proposal to phase out three-year nursing programs is implemented, an actual future decrease in the number of young people entering the nursing field may result.