Transactional Analysis of Married and Unmarried Nurses

Background: Transactional analysis is a theory of human personality and social behaviour. It is a comprehensive system of psychotherapy founded in the late 1950s by Eric Berne. Lately, organisational psychologists are waking up to the value of transactional analysis as a valuable Human Resources tool, giving them an insight into various interpersonal transactional styles in various professions. Nursing as a profession has always been characterised as a nurturing, caregiving and comfort providing job, which can emerge as a very taxing and stressful profession in return. The myriad role that nurses play requires certain interpersonal tactics and styles which are very typical demands of their job role. But their personalities and dispositions cannot be ignored. Hence, an attempt is being made in the present study to analyse different transactional styles being adopted by female nursing professionals, along with their back up styles and also the role of their marital status on how they deal with their patients. Methodology: For this purpose, a sample of 120 female nurses, 60 married and 60 unmarrieds, falling in the age range of 25-40 years, working in various private and government hospitals of Chandigarh was taken. The data was collected with the help of Transactional Styles Inventory-Nurses. Results: Results revealed significant differences between married and unmarried nurses. Married nurses were more nurturing while the unmarried nurses emerged to be more regulated in their interpersonal transactions. Conclusion: The overall interpersonal efficacy of nurses needs to be improved so that they can attain the position best suited to help them meet the demands of various roles that they have to play. Keywords: Transactional analysis, transactional functions, nurse-patient interaction