College students' perceptions of nursing: a GEE approach

Area of Science:

• Health Sciences
• Sociology
• Statistics

Background:

• The persistent nursing shortage necessitates understanding factors influencing student recruitment and nurse retention.
• Initiatives to address the nursing deficit include boosting student enrollment in nursing programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine how college student characteristics influence attitudes toward nursing, medicine, physical therapy, and high school teaching.
• To showcase statistical methods for multivariate analysis of clustered data, enabling direct comparison of survey items.

Main Methods:

• Multivariate analysis of clustered data.
• Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) to manage complex data structures.
• Merging independent survey items for comparative analysis.

Main Results:

• Favorable perceptions of nursing versus physical therapy were linked to a higher proportion of nursing majors in the sample.
• Students not majoring in nursing showed no preferential attitude toward nurses compared to physical therapists.
• Physicians consistently received higher ratings, and high school teachers lower ratings, irrespective of student major.

Conclusions:

• Student major significantly influences occupational attitudes, particularly regarding nursing.
• Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) are vital for analyzing complex, clustered, and correlated data in such studies.
• Attitudes toward physicians and teachers appear less influenced by nursing program enrollment.