Personal Qualities of Nurses Implying Need for Continuing Education to Increase Interpersonal and Leadership Effectiveness*

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Abstract
Some research indicates that nurses with considerable experience in nursing service are lacking in personal qualities that would promote interpersonal and leadership effectiveness. To study this further, the personal qualities of 80 randomly selected medical and surgical staff nurses were tested using the Cattell 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire. The subjects were placed in five groups according to their years of experience in nursing service and were compared to each other and also to adult female norms. The nurses as a whole scored more towards being reserved, detached, critical, and aloof than being warmhearted and outgoing. Nurses with 21 or more years of nursing experience were less assertive, submissive, more dependent, conforming, docile, and easily led than nurses with less experience. The findings imply a need for continuing education to increase interpersonal and leadership abilities in these identified groups of nurses.