Sex-role identity and image of nursing of females at two levels of baccalaureate nursing education.

Ninety-two female nursing students, 56 at entry (ENTL) to and 36 at exit (EXTL) from the baccalaureate program, participated in an investigation of the relationship between sex-role identity and image of nursing. Bem's Sex Role Inventory, which allows subjects to receive both masculinity and femininity scores, was used to categorize subjects as masculine, androgynous, feminine, or undifferentiated. Frank's Image of Nursing Questionnaire was used to evaluate subjects' image of nursing. Study purposes were to: compare the sex-role identity of nursing students and general college females, compare the image of nursing held by nursing students with the image advanced by the profession, determine the relationship between sex-role categorization and image of nursing, and determine the relationship between level of endorsement of masculine and feminine characteristics and image of nursing. Analyses indicated: a significant (p < .05) difference in sex-role identity based on categorization between the total nurse sample and general college females, EXTL students endorsed more masculine characteristics than ENTL students (p < .003), EXTL students endorsed more feminine characteristics than general college females (p < .001), ENTL and EXTL students and Frank's judges held significantly different images of nursing (p < .01 for all comparisons), and significant correlations between the image of nursing and level of endorsement of masculine characteristics, not masculine role identity, for EXTL (p < .002) and total nurse (p < .001) samples.