| The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to describe how nursing faculty in baccalaureate nursing programs purport to teach the essential values of altruism and human dignity to nursing students during the formal nursing program of study. In addition, to delineate the core behaviors and attitudes that nursing faculty members consider essential and contextually related to the essential values of altruism and human dignity. Nursing educators have a professional obligation to teach and reinforce professional nursing values that are consistent with the professional nursing role. Especially today, in these contentious and tumultuous times, there is a definite need for values education in nursing education programs. It is essential that professional nursing education be socially conscious and imbued with beneficent values such as altruism and respect for the human dignity of persons. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing's (1986) Essentials of College and University Education emphasized the importance of providing values education in nursing education. They recommended that baccalaureate nursing programs provide educational experiences for the development of seven essential values: altruism, aesthetics, human dignity, justice, freedom, equality, and truth. This qualitative investigation focused on two essential values, namely, altruism and human dignity. Data were collected from a purposeful sample of 21 baccalaureate nursing faculty members in nursing programs in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The assembled information included data concerning gender, age, and type of educational experience. The four qualitative themes that emerged from the qualitative interviews, notably in terms of teaching the value of altruism, were promoting awareness, reflection, social justice, and role modeling. Three qualitative themes emerged in terms of teaching the essential value of human dignity. These three qualitative themes were human dignity and the core concept of respect; human dignity and professionalism; and lastly, the theme of forms of protecting the human dignity of clients. This study found that the teaching of the essential value competencies to nursing students occurs within an informal context. The nursing faculty respondents reported that teaching concerning the core values was woven into the curriculum as a whole. |
