This descriptive correlational study involved a comparison of traditional baccalaureate and RN-BSN completion students during their last semester of nursing coursework. Fifty-five traditional students and fifty-one RN-BSN completion students were compared on a measure of professionalism: the Nurse Self-Description Form, a measure of personality trait: the Omnibus Personality Inventory, and measure of developmental level: the Student Developmental Task Inventory.

Four hypotheses were tested, including: (1) There will be no statistically significant difference between level of professionalism as measured by the Nurse Self-Description Form in traditional and RN-BSN completion students. (2) There will be no relationship between level of professionalism as measured on the Nurse Self-Description Form and level of developmental task as measured by the Student Developmental Task Inventory in traditional and RN-BSN completion students. (3) There will be no relationship between level of professionalism as measured on the Nurse Self-Description Form and personal characteristics as measured by the Omnibus Personality Inventory in traditional and RN-BSN completion students. (4) There will be no difference between students graduating from traditional and RN-BSN completion programs when affects of developmental level and personal characteristics are statistically controlled for.

All four hypotheses were initially rejected; RN-BSN completion students were found to be significantly more professional in outlook (p =.003) as measured by the Nurse Self-Description form. When individual variables such as personality traits and developmental level which have been associated with professionalism were controlled for, type of educational program remained significantly associated with professionalism score (p =.0058). Because of the significant difference in age between the two groups, another regression to statistically control for the variable age was performed. When the effect of age was statistically controlled for, there was no significant difference between the two groups in level of professionalism.

The results of the study suggest that the two groups of students achieve comparable levels of professionalism in different ways, with traditional students learning principally from academic experience and RN-BSN students developing professionally as a result of their exposure to socialization experiences in the workplace.

This finding suggests that students completing RN-BSN completion programs may be equally as professional as students graduating from traditional programs in terms of constructs measured by the Nurse Self-Description Form.