Conceptual systems of undergraduate nursing students as compared with university students at large and practicing nurses.

Phase I of a longitudinal study compared characteristics of abstractness-concreteness of junior-level baccalaureate nursing students at the University of Colorado with characteristics of practicing nurses and other college students. Three measurement instruments were used: Harvey's Conceptual Systems Test, the Role Survey, and the Self-Esteem Questionnaire. Nursing students were found to be more abstract than practicing nurses; no difference was found on abstractness-concreteness between nursing and the other students. More nursing students than practicing nurses or other students were found to have a need for structure and order. And, nursing students showed higher overall expanded role orientation than practicing nurses. Phases II and III of the study will examine nursing students' changes in abstractness-concreteness during the second and third years of study.