An Exploration of Professional Values Held by Nurses at a Large Freestanding Pediatric Hospital

Professional values form the basis for nurse attitudes and behavior, and are cornerstones to guiding nurses' clinical practice decisions. The purpose of this descriptive study of nurses at a large children's hospital is to describe the professional values of employed registered nurses and describe differences based on demographic characteristics, such as generation, years of experience, education, and professional role. This study is based on Benner's (1984) theoretical framework of novice to expert. The Nurses Professional Values Scale: Revised (NPVS-R) (Weis & Schank, 2004) was administered to working RNs at the children's hospital. The results of this descriptive study indicate that nurses' professional values differed based on characteristics, such as education, generation, job classification, and years of experience.