| Sumario: | This comparative descriptive study was conducted to determine differences in female nurses' perceptions regarding the severity of facial disfigurement in patients following surgery for head and neck cancer. Differences in perceptions based on patient gender were also explored. King's Theory of Goal Attainment (1971, 1981) served as the theoretical framework used to investigate the concept of perception in nurse-patient interactions. Subjects comprised a nonprobability sampling design of a convenience type that included two groups of female nurses, 30 experienced and 30 inexperienced in head and neck oncology. Using a face-to-face interview approach, subjects were asked to complete a Demographic Data Form (DDF) and the Modified Disfigurement Scale (MDS), an instrument adapted from the Disfigurement/Dysfunction Scale (Dropkin et al., 1983). A pilot study determined content validity, internal consistency (Cronbach alpha coefficient =.92), and test-retest reliability (.76 after two weeks). Data analysis included both descriptive and inferential statistics. Frequency distributions and measures of central tendency and variability were used to create demographic profiles and to compute the four components of the MDS: Total Photo Response (TPR), Male Photo Response (MPR), Female Photo Response (FPR), and Individual Photo Response (IPR). Pearson product-moment correlations were used to determine associations among IPR scores. A two-factor ANOVA with repeated measures on one factor served as the experimental design used to answer the research questions. Findings indicated that although experienced nurses evaluated the photos on the MDS as being less disfigured than the inexperienced nurses, this difference was not statistically significant (F = 1.26, p =.266). Second, significant differences were found in nurses' perceptions of facial disfigurement based on the factor of patient gender when all 60 nurses evaluated the photos (F = 41.61, p =.000). However, while all 60 nurses evaluated female photos as being more disfigured than male photos, this difference in perceptions was not an effect of their experience (F = 3.29, p =.075). Additional analyses of IPR scores suggested that all 60 nurses evaluated photos that depicted surgical procedures involving the central portion of the face as being more disfigured than photos involving the periphery of the face with less tissue removal. Results were interpreted with particular implications for nurse educators in both staff development and schools of nursing. Educators need to consider the effect of gender-specific perceptions in designing teaching strategies for nurses who care for facially disfigured patients. Findings also support King's framework as a guide for examining the concept of perception in clinical practice.
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