Perception of College Students towards Nursing as a Career Choice

Introduction: Nursing as a branch of health care system is to serve the humanity. The demand of nursing is growing worldwide and Bangladesh is no exception for that.

Objectives: The present study has been undertaken to assess the perception and identify the factors influencing the perception of college students towards taking nursing as a career choice for future.

Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive cross- sectional study that was carried out of 164 respondents. A semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Collected data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.

Results: The most significant findings indicate that 58.2% out of total respondents who would consider the nursing is a respectful and honorable profession, 62.2% were females while 37.8% were males. Out of which 70.0% respondents perceived that nursing is the only female career choice. An overall assessment of perception in this study showed that most of the students had average perception, m±sd =3.6±.994 (72.3%) towards nursing profession as a career choice. There is found no significant relationship between sex, education of parents and living area in considering nursing as a career choice (p> 0.05). This study also reported 66.5% students held positive perception on nursing as a career in future that nursing is a profession needs study, skills and proper practice to consider as a career choice. But this study revealed significant relationship between perception and socio demographic characteristics such as religion of the students, occupation of the parents and family monthly income (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Study recommends parents occupation with their guidance role to develop admirable image among college students to choose the nursing as a career in future. There is a need for college students to be aware of what nursing as a profession entails that sex is not a determining factor to become a better nurse.