Perception of nursing profession among pre-university students

Today, the perception about the nursing profession appears uncertain, and the question asked by many students is “What is nursing?”. Historically, nurses have been predominantly females who were easily recognized by a white cap and uniform making the profession more visible. Students’ perceptions of nursing are based on visual images that are often limited to bedside care and drug administration instead of that of a highly skilled and well-educated nursing professional with an important role to play in healthcare. The purpose of study was to determine the pre-university students’ perceptions of nursing profession in selected pre-university colleges at Tumkur, Karnataka.Objectives of the study were i)to determine the pre-university students’ perceptions about the nursing profession as measured by perceptions scale instrument. 2) To find out the association between students’ perceptions of the nursing profession with the selected socio-demographic variables.The data collected showed highly positive, positive, and negative perceptions regarding nursing profession among pre-university students. It was observed that 11% of subjects having highly positive perception, 83% having positive perception and 5.5% of subjects having negative perception towards nursing.There was significant association between levels of perceptions and demographic variables like religion(2=23.305) getting inspired by nurse in action as a role model(2=11.474), becoming mentor after nursing graduation(2=32.476), source of information about nursing(2=31.649), and willing to attend an introductory nursing class (2=16.09)at< p=0.05,.