Are there any differences in attitudes of nurses and physicians towards nursing education

Aim To investigate the attitudes of nurses, physicians, nursing postgraduate students, patients towards the method and level of nursing education in the Zenica-Doboj Canton, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Methods Descriptive analytical study was conducted among nurses and physicians employed in three public health institutions, as well as among students of nursing master study and among the in-patients and outpatients. An anonymous questionnaire was designed for the research. Block random sampling method was used, and subjects were divided into four groups: nurses, physicians, patients, nursing postgraduate students. Respondents were selected by simple random sampling. The study included 180 subjects, 50 of each nurses, physicians, patients, and 30 nursing postgraduate students. Results There were 67 (37.2%) males; 76 (42.2%) respondents were from the age group 41-60 years. Only 21 (42%) patients had heard about the process of health care (p=0.005), and only 34 (64%) of them had heard about the nursing university education (p=0.005). In the group of physicians, 27 (54%) respondents found that knowledge was not required for nurses (p=0.90). Differences in attitudes between the groups were statistically significant relating to the progress of nurses to highest education level, e.g. Master’s and PhD (p=0.01), and allowing nurses to manage nursing education (p=0.005). Conclusion In contrary to the physicians and patients opinion, nurse postgraduate students declared they were competent to manage university education and progress to highest education and scientific level. A compromise between nursing competence and responsibility in multidisciplinary teams, where the nurse should be an equal member, needs to be reached.