Faculty consensus as a socializing agent in professional education

To assess the effectiveness of the professional socialization process in a professional school, this study focused on emerging attitueds of nursing students, perceived limits of their role, nursing autonomy, and rights of patients. Student attitudes were compared to attitudes of instructors to determine if socialization was taking place. Consensus among student attitudes was found to increase during the educational program, and attitudes of nursing students did approach those of their instructors. Degree of faculty consensus was suggested as a major determinant of the effectiveness of the socialization process in professional schools.