Young people's views of nursing as a career

Abstract

Throughout the years, various definitions for nursing are attempted, yet there is no universally acceptable definition. Still, most of the definitions produced regard nursing as caring for ill people while promoting health (Chitty 1997). Carroll (2003) stated that nursing is one of the most trusted professions. Being considered as a trusted profession might in turn have a positive influence on young people's choice for a future career, especially when considering that today's youths are searching for meaningful roles in a significant work but which still offers the possibility to help others (Tulgen and Martin 2001 cited by Cohen 2004). In fact the main objective of this small scale explorative study is to determine the views towards nursing as a career amongst thirty-eight young people attending a post-secondary school. In addition this study aims to identify factors that may influence the students' decision to study or reject nursing. The results obtained indicate that nursing continues to be viewed as a caring career and as one that offers many personal benefits. Comments like 'satisfying' and 'challenging' were also attributed to nursing. Still, these factors seemed to have little effect on the students' decision to consider nursing as a future option. Moreover issues such as gender and the influence of relatives did not seem to influence the young people in considering nursing as their future option.