Exploration of Personality Traits of Online and On-Campus Family Nurse Practitioner Students

Personality types and specialty selection have been identified in physicians who select family practice.  However data is not available for nurses who select Family Nurse Practitioner as their specialty.  There is a 10% attrition of students who enter on-campus education programs and a 20% attrition rate for online students.  Personality types of nurse in general and family nurse practitioner students specifically have not been conducted.

Purpose:

To explore the personality types of Family Nurse Practitioner students. Additional exploration of differences between online and on-campus students is explored.

Methods:

Non-experimental exploratory study of 109 newly enrolled family nurse practitioner students.  A two site cohort study with cohort one a large private northeaster US university and cohort two a small private university in the southern part of the United Stated.  Fifty students were enrolled in an online program and 59 were enrolled in on-campus program.  Instrument was Myers-Briggs, Form M personality inventory.  The profile was completed anonymously as students were directly to the Myers-Briggs web site.

Results:

Sample:  Males (7 on-campus, 13 online). Average age 31.7 years online and 33.29 on-campus.

Chi square analysis revealed a significant difference was found in the personality trait of Sensing vs Intuition (p.000)

A significant difference was noted with students judging vs Perceiving (p.013).  The sample was too small to calculate a difference between the 16 total personality types

Conclusion:

The results indicate that FNP students are predominately judging and Sensing.  There is need to determine if similar traits are noted in practicing Family Nurse Practitioners.  Additional long term studies to look at job satisfaction and successful completion of the education program differs with educational program.