Student nurses' experiences and perceptions of envy in one nurse education environment in Finland

The aim of this paper is to describe the different definitions of envy in a nurse education environment. Answers are sought to questions concerning student nurses' experiences and perceptions of envy and their ways of coping with envy in one polytechnic of health and welfare in Finland. Conclusions are presented to illuminate the concept of envy based on student nurses' perceptions in one polytechnic, where 64 (N = 100) student nurses were recruited from among the available (attending classes) students in 1998. The research material was collected using an instrument of 15 open-ended questions. The phenomenographic approach was used to analyze the data. According to this paper, envy appears different, depending on whether students are talking about their personal feelings of envy or envy shown by others. Furthermore, envy is described differently at the general level and in health care. Student nurses described their own envy as mild nuances of feelings, while envy at the general level was described as consisting of aggressive feelings. The most general way of coping with envy is rationalization. These findings can be used to help student nurses identify envy as a concept and also to recognize emotions as part of personal knowledge. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.