perceptions of first and last year nursing bachelor students about their own profession: a qualitative study

perceptions of first and last year nursing bachelor students about their own profession: a qualitative study    zamanzadeh v [1] , valizadeh l [2] *, nasiri kh [3]     received: 2 jul , 2013 accepted: 9 sep , 2013     abstract   background & aims: nursing has considerable progresses towards becoming professional in recent decades in comparison with previous decades. it seems that researches on nursing students perceptions about nursing profession at first and at the end of their education in our country(iran) ins’t enough. so this study was conducted with the aim of describing the nature of first and last year nursing bachelor students about their own profession.   materials & methods: this study is a qualitative one, and the participants of this study were 20 nursing students who were in the first and last year of their education in bachelor degree. sampling method was purposeful. the data were collected and analyzed (content analysis) simultaneously. after explaining the aim of research to the participants, and taking written consent and keeping the record of interviews, unstructured interview was used to gather the data.   results: in the current study, conceptual domains of bachelor’s degree students about this profession included: “the nature of nursing (knowledge/ job)”, “the profession’s social status” and “actually/delivering nursing (nursing administering)”. the student were fully aware and close to nursing reality in their last year. another classification as “effective (positive /negative) factors on nursing student’s perceptions about their own profession” were recognized as well.   conclusion: according to findings of this study, it seems that some interventions must be conducted in order to assess and inform students about their profession in three dimensions of profession concerning factors which are affecting their perceptions.   key words: profession, students, nursing, qualitative study     address: faculty of nursing and midwifery, tabriz university of medical sciences, tabriz, iran   tel :(+98)4114796770   email : [email protected]   [1] assistant professor, edc research center for medical sciences education , department of pediatric nursing, school of nursing and midwifery tabriz university of medical sciences.  [2] assistant professor, edc research center for medical sciences education , department of pediatric nursing, school of nursing and midwifery tabriz university of medical sciences. (corresponding author)   3 master science nursing student from tabriz university of medical sciences (medical-surgical nursing department).