The relationship between professional values of nursing students and respectful maternity care: A descriptive and correlational study

Aim: This study aimed to examine the relationship between nursing students' perception of respectful maternal care and their professional values.

Design: A descriptive and correlation design was used.

Method: The sample were 323 nursing students in the third and fourth year of training. Data collection occurred in 2023. Nursing students completed the Personal Information Form, Students' Perceptions of Respectful Maternity Care Scale and Nurses' Professional Values Scale.

Results: In this study, the mean age of the students was 21.51 (SD 1.26) years. It was determined that 56.3 % of the students were in their 3rd year, 23.2 % were male, 63.5 % chose the nursing profession willingly, 123 students (38.1 %) had previously worked in a pregnancy clinic in clinical practice and 99 students (30.7 %) had observed a vaginal birth. A moderate relationship was found between the students' Respectful Maternity Care Perception Scale total score and the Nurses' Professional Values Scale total score. It was found that the predictors of students' perception of respectful maternity care were human dignity, action and security sub-dimensions and the predictors of nursing students' professional values were the respectful care, security and comfort sub-dimensions of the Students' Perception of Respectful Maternity Care Scale.

Conclusions: Nursing students' perception of respectful maternity care and professional values of nurses were found to be above the mean level. As a result, it is very important to evaluate nursing students' perception of respectful maternal care and its relationship with professional values and to support and strengthen this in nursing education.