| This study examined the relationship between 14 selected individual and professional background characteristics, self-perceived developmental level (ableness and willingness), and self-perceived professional zone of acceptance in collegiate nurse educators. Developmental level was examined in the context of three primary areas of teaching responsibility: clinical instruction/supervision of students, clinical performance evaluation of students, classroom instruction of students. Three self-report instruments were used for data collection and analysis: (a) the Individual and Professional Background Questionnaire-Nurse Educator (IPBQ-NE); (b) the Professional Zone of Acceptance Inventory-Nurse Educator (PZAI-NE); (c) the Developmental Readiness Scale (DRS).;The sample for the investigation was 392 randomly selected subjects from the population of nurse educators who possess a minimum of an earned master's degree, who teach in nursing programs in four-year colleges and universities which offer the associate, baccalaureate, master's or doctoral degree with a major in nursing, in the 14 states within the geographical region of the Southern Regional Education Board. Data were collected following the Total Design Method (Dillman, 1977) for conducting mail surveys. Computation of Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis indicated a high degree of internal consistency reliability and construct validity for the PZAI-NE and the DRS. The data were tested using Pearson product moment correlation, multiple regression, and canonical correlation procedures.;The results suggest that the self-perceived professional zone of acceptance and self-perceived developmental level of collegiate nurse educators are only slightly related. A narrower self-perceived professional zone of acceptance tends to be associated with the following background characteristics: doctoral preparation, more total years of teaching experience, more years of experience teaching in the subject area presently teaching and more years of experience teaching in the present program, teaching in more than one type of program, teaching in a higher degree program, higher rank, teaching full-time, and tenure. A higher self-perceived developmental level (ableness and willingness) tends to be associated with the following background characteristics: more years of clinical experience in the subject area presently teaching and teaching in a higher degree program. |
