Distinguishing deviant and non-deviant nurses using the personnel reaction blank

Personnel Reaction Blank (PRB) scores and biographical data were obtained from two groups of registered nurses; a "deviant" group, represented by those who had official actions taken against their nursing license by the Minnesota Board of Nursing (n=53) and a "non-deviant" group of nurses (n=79) randomly selected from a broader population. The hypothesis that the deviant group of nurses would exhibit lower PRB scores, on average, compared to the non-deviant group was confirmed. The mean PRB scores for the deviant nurses (m=32.43) were significantly lower (p≤.01) than for the randomly selected non-deviant nurses (m=35.06). A multiple regression logit analysis showed that in addition to PRB scores, college degree, sex, and household income variables were also significantly related (p≤.001) to deviant and non-deviant group assignment; nonetheless, PRB significantly differentiated these groups after holding these variables constant.