The importance of personal values and symbols of happiness among vocationally active nurses

Introduction. Personal values of human being and expressed symbols of happiness give the meaning for existence, create life and define style.
The hierarchy of personal values among nurses should be coherent with determinants of their vocational roles and social expectations of clients.

Aim of the study. The aim of the study was to illustrate the range of personal values and symbols of happiness among the group of working
nurses and determine differences of their preference in dependence on socio-vocational features.

Material and methods. The study was conducted by the use of the standardised tool by Juczyński called List of Personal Values (LPV). The
range of study also focuses on personal data questions and questions related to opinion of nurses about meaning of nursing symbols. The
group of 200 nurses working at a few hospitals in the city of Lublin took part in the study.

Results. The group of surveyed nurses constituted of 96% (n = 192) of women and 4% (n = 8) of men. The results of LPV scale related to
categories of personal values showed that the most important values declared by nurses were: good health, physical and psychological
capacity, love and friendship, knowledge and wisdom, intelligence and cleverness, joy and satisfaction. Statistical analysis proved significant
correlation between intelligence and cleverness (r = 0.15; p = 0.04) and knowledge and wisdom (r = –0.21; p = 0.003) and meaning of
nursing symbols in everyday life.

Conclusions. The categories of personal values that were pointed out by nurses, such as: love and friendship as well as intelligence and
cleverness had statistically significant correlation with age, years of working and opinion of surveyed nurses connected with meaning of
nursing symbols.

Nursing Topics 2011; 19 (2): 219–227