title: Attitudes of diploma-prepared and graduate registered nurses. Towards nursing models: a comparative study.
abstract: Currently, nursing theory is not a South African Nursing Council requirement for pre-registration nursing education curricula.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to determine registered nurses' (RNs) attitudes towards nursing models.
  
  
  METHODS
  replication of McKenna's (1994) 20-item Likert-type self-completion questionnaire with adaptations.
  
  
  METHODS
  A 1,600-bedded State-funded academic hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two groups: RNs who had nursing degrees and RNs who had a traditional diploma training.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results from the Mann-Whitney U-test for independent samples indicates that at the 0.05 level of significance there was no difference in how each group of RNs responded to 19 statement items so there was not enough evidence to reject the Null Hypothesis for these statements (P < 0.05). However, as a group, the diploma-prepared RNs appeared to have a more positive attitude than the graduate RNs towards nursing models.
authors.affiliation: Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kyriacos
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: van der Walt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D004510:Education, Nursing, Diploma Programs; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016294:Models, Nursing; D015399:Nursing Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires