Youth culture and nursing
A comparative study of the forming of motivation and identity in two different traditions of nursing education
Bodil Tveit - Ph.D. Fellow
Advisor:
Professor Harald Grimen
Project period:
2002-2006
The project is financed by Oslo University College and Diakonhjemmet University College.
The aim of the project is to get a deeper understanding of what drives young people in late modern society into nursing education and how their professional identity and their motivation for nursing develop throughout the education. The project follows two groups of students from respectively a secular and a non-secular tradition of nursing education. 15 students from two different nursing schools are selected and in-depth interviews are conducted with the same students at different points in time in the course of their professional education. The main focus of the study is on the non-secular tradition, while the empirical findings from the secular tradition will be used mainly as a comparison to identify distinctive features in the non-secular tradition. Both historical and philosophical theories as well as theories of current youth culture will be used in the interpretation and discussion of results.
The project will for one thing try to find out if the two traditions recruit students differing in motivation and how motivation and identity develop in the course of the programmes. Secondly it will look into how the two programmes comprehend and follow the directions of the national curriculum to educate nurses with the right willingness, and the ability to perform their work with the compassion, respect, empathy and consideration for other people that are essential values in the nursing profession.