INTRODUCTION:

Assertiveness and good self-esteem are considered as healthy behavioural skills for all people that, when present, militate against personal powerlessness and results in personal empowerment. Assertiveness is an important behavioural skill for today’s professional nurse. As nurses move away from traditional subservient roles and perceived stereotypes it is increasingly being recognised that a nurse needs to behave in an assertive manner. (Catherine Mc 2003)

Nursing is centred on the nurse-patient relationship. Nursing is a profession whose “object” is the human being and thus the success of the work is partly determined by the effective cooperation with patients and other health care professionals. Assertiveness is necessary for effective nurse/patient communication, and it is suggested that its development may also aid the confidence of the profession as it develops. (Khosravani S 2005)

Assertive behaviour means accepting ourselves and others as well; it is a behaviour that is built on forcefulness, true self-evaluation while the person openly expresses their feelings, thoughts, enforces their rights and reaches their goals at the same time as they consider other people’s feelings, rights and interests. It is considered as one of the essential life skills that has to be developed by everyone.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

Assess the assertiveness and self-esteem of nurses in selected hospitals at Thalassery.

OBJECTIVES:

Assess the level of assertiveness of nurses.

Assess the level self-esteem of nurses.

Find the association between assertiveness of nurses and selected variables.

Find the association between self-esteem of nurses and selected variables.

Find the relationship between assertiveness and self-esteem of nurses.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION

Assertiveness: Assertiveness is defined as a form of behaviour characterized by a confident declaration or affirmation of a statement without need of proof; this affirms the person's rights or point of view without either aggressively threatening the rights of another (assuming a position of dominance) or submissively permitting another to ignore or deny one's rights or point of view as measured by Assertiveness Rating Scale.

Self-esteem: Self-esteem is the study subject’s feeling of value regard pride and respect that one has for one’s own capabilities as measured by the Self-esteem Scale.

Nurse: In the present study nurse refers to person who has completed his/her diploma or degree in nursing and is working with designation of nurse.

MATERIALS AND METHOD:

A study is conducted with the purpose of assessing the assertiveness and self-esteem of nurses in selected hospitals at Thalassery. A non-experimental descriptive approach was used for the study. A sample of 135 nurses from different hospitals of Thalassery was selected using convenience sampling method. Data was collected using demographic data sheet and Assertiveness rating scale (r =0.78). It consists of 35 statements regarding assertiveness in job situations. Self-esteem was assessed using Rosenberg’s self-esteem Scale (Standardized Scale) consisting of ten statements. Data collection was done after obtaining permission from concerned authorities. Informed consent was also taken from the sample. The data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

RESULT

Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the sample N = 135

Variables	Frequency	Percentage
Age in years
20-30	101	74.8
30-40	23	17.03
40-50	8	5.9
50-60	3	2.20
Gender
Male	19	14.07
Female	116	85.9
Marital status
Married	58	42.9
Unmarried	77	57.03
Years of experience
Less than 5 years	101	74.8
5 to 10 years	19	14.07
More than 10 years	15	11.11
Professional qualification
Diploma in Nursing	69	51.1
Graduate in Nursing	62	45.9
Post graduate in Nursing	4	2.96

Table 1 indicates that majority (74.8 %) of the sample belonged to the age group of 20 -30 years. Majority (85.9%) were females and unmarried (57.03%). 74.8 % of the sample was having less than 5 years of experience and 51.1 % of the sample was having GNM as the professional qualification.

Figure1. Level of Assertiveness of sample

Fig.1 shows that majority (97.7%) of the sample had average assertiveness and 2.2% had good assertiveness.

Figure 2 Level of self-esteem of sample

Fig.2 shows that majority (90.4%) had normal self-esteem and 9.6% had low self esteem.

Table 2. Association between assertiveness and selected variables

N = 135

Variable	Category	Level of Assertiveness		Chi square value
Variable	Category	Average	Good	Chi square value
Age in years	20-30	100	0	14.74*
	30-40	21	3
	40-50	8	0
	50-60	3	0
Gender	Male	19	0	0.5
Gender	Female	113	3	0.5
Marital status	Married	55	3	4.1*
Marital status	Unmarried	75	0	4.1*
Years of Experience	<5 years	97	0	9.69*
	5-10 years	29	2
	>10 years	6	1
Educational Status	Diploma	73	3	2.38
	UG	55	0
	PG	4	0
Type of Employment	Permanent	53	03	4.25*
Type of Employment	Temporary	79	0	4.25*

(*significant at P <0.05)

Table 2 indicates that there is significant association between assertiveness and selected variable age, marital status, years of experience, type of employment.

Table 3. Association between Self-esteem and selected variables

N = 135

Variable	Category	Level of Self esteem		Chi square value
Variable	Category	Low	Normal	Chi square value
Age in years	20-30	09	92	0.10
Age in years	30-60	04	30	0.10
Gender	Male	1	18	0.43
Gender	Female	12	104	0.43
Marital status	Married	05	54	0.06
Marital status	Unmarried	08	68	0.06
Years of Experience	<5 years	09	91	0.32
	5-10 years	02	18
	>10 years	02	13
Educational Status	Diploma	05	63	1.64
	UG	07	56
	PG	01	03
Type of Employment	Permanent	04	52	0.23
Type of Employment	Temporary	09	70	0.23

(*significant at P <0.05)

Table .3 indicates that there is no significant association between level of self-esteem and selected variables.

Table 4. Relationship between Assertiveness and self esteem

N=135

Variable	r value
Level of Assertiveness	0.9
Level of Self-esteem	0.9

Table 4 indicates that there is moderately positive relationship between assertiveness and self-esteem.

DISCUSSION:

The findings of the study revealed that only 02.2% of the nurses were having good level of assertiveness and the rest 97.7% were having average level of assertiveness. Majority (90.4%) of the nurses were having normal level of self-esteem.

Findings of the present study also revealed that there is significant association between assertiveness and selected variables age, marital status, years of experience and type of employment. Exploratory study done by Gerry EM (1989) supports this finding and states that knowledge, confidence, experience and wearing of uniform are the factors that promote assertive behaviour.

A moderately positive relationship between assertiveness and self-esteem was found in the present study. This finding was supported by the study done by Karagozoglu S etal. (2008), which states that student nurses who scored high in self-esteem also scored high in Assertiveness.

CONCLUSION:

Assertiveness is an important skill that facilitates professional behaviour of the nurse. As the findings of the study reveals there is a need to organise training for the nurses to increase assertive behaviour. This aids in appropriate client care by the nurse.

REFERENCE:

1. Catherine Mc, (2003) Teaching assertiveness to undergraduate nursing students. Nurse Educat.3(1),30-42.

2. Khosravani S, Mnnoochehri H, Memarian R, (2005). Developing life skill in nursing students by group dynamics, The Internet Journal of Advanced Nursing Practice .7 (2).

3. Karagozoglu S,Kahve E, Koc O and Adamisoglu D (2008).Self-esteem and assertiveness of final year Turkish University students. Nurse Educ Today. 28(5), 641-649.

4. Gerry EM, An investigation to assertive behaviour of trained nurses. Journal of Continuing Nursing Education.14,1002-8.

Received on 30.12.2019 Modified on 20.01.2020

Asian J. Nursing Education and Research. 2020; 10(2):160-162.

DOI: 10.5958/2349-2996.2020.00035.X