Table 2. Factor analysis of impressions regarding the master’s programs of nursing graduate schools.
| Factor | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Acquiring advanced expertise (Cronbach’s α=0.945) | |||||
| 12. Thinking based on evidence | 0.914 | 0.001 | 0.011 | −0.010 | |
| 13. Gaining expertise that cannot be acquired by only working at clinical sites | 0.902 | −0.013 | −0.006 | −0.016 | |
| 14. Enabling logical thinking | 0.860 | −0.011 | −0.014 | 0.060 | |
| 11. Developing expertise in nursing | 0.798 | 0.010 | 0.089 | −0.003 | |
| 15. Acquiring broad perspectives | 0.766 | −0.010 | −0.026 | 0.162 | |
| 2. Being able to keep up with courses in graduate schools (Cronbach’s α=0.918) | |||||
| 4. Dealing with subjects | −0.077 | 0.929 | 0.011 | 0.027 | |
| 3. Understanding the textbooks | 0.003 | 0.919 | 0.006 | −0.014 | |
| 5. Earning credits | −0.017 | 0.910 | |<0.001|a | −0.014 | |
| 1. Keeping up with lectures | −0.031 | 0.838 | −0.020 | 0.002 | |
| 2. Acquiring skills for research | 0.213 | 0.557 | 0.024 | 0.041 | |
| 3. Dedication of graduate school teachers to their students (Cronbach’s α=0.910) | |||||
| 7. Kind instruction | 0.025 | 0.018 | 0.892 | −0.076 | |
| 9. Advising students on problems | −0.082 | −0.039 | 0.888 | 0.089 | |
| 10. Taking time to answer questions on student research | 0.076 | −0.016 | 0.795 | −0.012 | |
| 8. Attractive personalities | −0.045 | −0.042 | 0.770 | 0.158 | |
| 6. Not being overbearing toward their students | 0.073 | 0.092 | 0.709 | −0.107 | |
| 4. Being able to acquire skills to contribute to society (Cronbach’s α=0.905) | |||||
| 17. Contribution to societal development | −0.042 | 0.020 | −0.019 | 0.923 | |
| 16. Contribution to raising the quality of people’s lives | −0.014 | 0.002 | −0.030 | 0.865 | |
| 18. Contribution to raising the quality of nursing services | 0.149 | 0.005 | −0.002 | 0.773 | |
| 19. Contribution to improving problems at the nursing work site | 0.140 | −0.003 | 0.032 | 0.696 | |
| 20. Expecting registered nurses to gain highly specialized expertise | 0.006 | |<0.001|b | 0.066 | 0.592 | |
| Inter factor correlations | |||||
| 1. Acquiring advanced expertise | 1 | ||||
| 2. Being able to keep up with courses in graduate schools | 0.287 | 1 | |||
| 3. Dedication of graduate school teachers to their students | 0.593 | 0.331 | 1 | ||
| 4. Being able to acquire skills to contribute to society | 0.726 | 0.290 | 0.562 | 1 | |
To conduct factor analysis (the principal factor method and promax rotation), the following system was used. Concerning each item of impressions regarding the master’s programs of nursing graduate schools, 1 to 7 points were given from definitely disagree to definitely agree. Bold-faced type shows factor loadings ≥0.4. To calculate the Cronbachʼs alpha of each factor, 1 to 7 points were given in the order from definitely disagree to definitely agree. a,b: Factor loadings can become either positive (+) or negative (−), and we therefore used the absolute value.