Why not nursing? Perceptions of the nursing job by young people of high schools – preliminary study

Aim. The work aimed at evaluating the interest in learning nursing profession among students of high schools.

Material and methods. The research comprised a group of 307 students from high schools. The research has been conducted between January - April 2018. The methods used were the diagnostic survey method. The self-construction questionnaire and the-questionnaire - List of Personal Values by Z. Juczyński were also used.

Results. The willingness to start learning the profession of a field nurse has been declared only by 2 persons. 13% of students considered nursing studies as a substitute field of study. The factors that discourage the young to learn the profession include low remuneration, specificity of the profession that implies “dirty and difficult work”, low social esteem for the profession, The students, who more often identify the profession of a nurse as prestigious, declared interest in learning that profession (p<0,001).

Conclusions. Interest in the profession of a field nurse is very low. It is necessary to start promoting the profession in order to make the young perceive it as more attractive.