Relationship of creativity factors to performance of students in psychiatric nursing

Creativity, or to create, is a term that is familiar in nursing literature, yet little attempt is made to define creativity as it exists or should exist in nursing, or exactly how it applies to nursing situations. The nursing literature reviewed showed little evidence of creativity factors being identified or correlated to any components in nursing. The values that come from developing creative abilities within individuals are assumed to be numerous. In disregarding the creative potential of student nurses, a valuable asset to the nursing profession and to the individual may be lost. Though much emphasis is currently being placed on interpersonal relations, little mention is made of the place creativity may have in building relationships and in planning and executing nursing functions. The present study was designed to see if a relationship could be demonstrated to exist between creativity and nursing functions in psychiatric care. Six creativity tests selected by the investigator as having some implications for nursing performance were chosen. These tests were given to forty nursing students from the University of Utah and the Brigham Young University who had completed their psychiatric education. The total score on the creativity tests was then correlated with the instructors' ranking of the students according to their performance in the clinical area of psychiatric nursing, and correlated to their clinical scores attained on the NLN examination. After the data was collected, Rho correlations were computed between the creativity tests and the NLN scores and instructors' rankings. A Pearson Product-Moment correlation was computed between the NLN clinical scores and the creativity test scores. The statistical analysis was carried out in order to test the hypotheses: (1) there will be a positive correlation with creativity test scores and performance of the nursing students in the psychiatric clinical area; (2) there will be a positive correlation with the NLN examination and the instructor's ranking. From the data collected the following conclusion was drawn: The hypotheses were rejected for there were no significant correlations between creativity test scores and performance of nursing students and NLN examination scores and instructors' ranking.