Abstract:
Introduction: Nursing is one of the honorable professions in the world and nursing
education is becoming more demanding each day. Attitude is directly involved in
choosing the nursing profession and the quality of the nursing profession.
Objective: The study aimed to assess the attitudes towards the nursing profession
and the factors that influence on it among nursing students.
Methodology: An institutional-based descriptive cross-sectional study was
conducted among the 323 nursing students who were studying at the Faculty of
Allied Health Sciences, University of Jaffna, and College of Nursing, Jaffna. The
data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed by using
IBM SPSS 25.0. The chi-square test was used to analyze the factors' influence on
attitude of the participants.
Results: The mean age was 24.28 years, Female and male ratio was 3:1. Majority
of the participants stated that they do not have any gender-based preference to
choose nursing as their career (96.6%). Most of the students stated that they chose
nursing due to their interest and to improve their financial status. The majority
(55.9%) indicated that creating a good nurse-patient relationship is the major
characteristic needed for a successful nurse. Also, they mentioned this relationship
should be in a professional way with sympathy. The major responsibilities of the
nurse mentioned by many (93.1%) are caring for the patient, helping in patients’
recovery and maintaining their legal rights regarding their privacy, confidentiality,
and psychological support. Half of them did not have a good opinion on going out
of the workplace in uniform. There was a statistically significant association
between participants' attitudes on the nursing profession and participants’ gender,
age, and their father’s education level.
Conclusion: The majority of the participants had a good attitude toward the nursing
profession. Participants’ gender, age, and their father’s education level were
statistically significant associations on participants' attitudes towards the nursing
profession.
