Changing images of professionalism: the case of public health nurses.

A survey of 89 public health nurses in a California county explored factors that might account for the growing support of unions and subsequent militancy among nurses. As predicted, changes in the backgrounds of public health nurses have occurred over time: 1) older nurses are more likely to have graduated from a diploma program and to have parents of lower educational and occupational attainment than younger nurses; 2) older nurses are more likely to view nursing as a calling and less likely to desire representation in collective bargaining by the union or to believe striking professional; 3) older nurses and those from lower social class backgrounds were less likely to belong to the union and less likely to participate in a county-wide strike. Because age and parental background factors are independently related to our indicators of militancy--union membership and participation in a strike--the results are interpreted as a change in nurses' images of professionalism.