Measuring perceptions of the exemplary nurse

Qualitative and quantitative data identifying and weighting the perceived importance of different attributes of the "exemplary" nurse were collected from nursing respondents at different points in their professional development. Statistically significant differences in the attribute weights reported by fourth-year students and graduate nurses were observed. Because their pool was qualitatively different, quantitative comparisons with first-year students were not possible. The results indicate that these methods may be useful in examining the processes whereby the members of different groups (eg, nursing students and faculty) formulate and modify their assumptions about their own and others' professional values.