The concept of task versus person orientation in nursing

Abstract

To clarify the concept of task versus person orientation in nursing, a factor analysis of 24 personality-and nursing-attitude variables was performed on 160 nurses from long- and short-term treatment settings in psychiatry and general medicine. 3 factors, Leadership Skills, Hostile-Self-Seeking, and Dependent-Exploited sampled behaviors in the interpersonal sphere and particularly traits related to leadership capability. The 4th factor, Impersonal-Orderly, contained many characteristics of the "Authoritarian Personality." An emphasis on the skilled technical aspects of nursing was one of the elements in this factor. In general, the derived factor scores effectively differentiated nurses from the treatment settings in this study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)