Comparison of manifest needs of nurses and physicians in primary care practice

Nurses, among other professionals, have been tested extensively using the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule. High scoring needs found in previous studies were order, deference, and endurance. In this study, questions focused on whether these needs remained prominent in a group of nurses, whether there were shifts in the need patterns over time, and how the nurses' needs compared with the needs of physicians. In this study 127 graduate nurses enrolled in a medical nurse practitioner program and 31 physician colleagues completed the EPPS. The rank order of needs among nurses was strikingly different from those collected in previous samples. Need for heterosexuality, dominance, intraception, change, and achievement consistently appeared highest since 1973, whereas need for deference, order, and endurance scored consistently among the lowest six needs. The rank-order correlation between nurses and physicians in this sample, all of whom were working in primary care settings, was high (r = .9). Only one of the 15 needs, intraception, differed significantly between the nurse and the physician groups, the nurses scoring higher. The shift in needs of the nurses and the high similarity of needs of the nurse and physician groups suggest an emerging assertiveness on the part of the nurses and a trend toward similarity of need patterns with physicians practicing in primary care.