Compatibility of personality and major among freshman undergraduate nursing students of the Kerman University of Medical Sciences

BACKGROUND Personality traits are major effective factors on student's learning, educational achievements and employer's job satisfaction. Metacognitive characteristics such as personality are only changeable up to 30% in the best educational condition. Therefore, students should be evaluated for such characteristics including their personality compatibility with their major. The present study investigated the personality compatibility of freshman undergraduate nursing students of the Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2008 with nursing profession. METHODS This was a descriptive study using a standard questionnaire based on Holland's career and personality theory on 82 freshman nursing students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2008. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. RESULTS More than 50% of the participants evaluated their information of nursing profession average. The personality of 41.3% was not compatible with nursing profession and the personality of 26.2% was relatively compatible. Only 32.5% of the participants had completely compatible personalities with this profession. CONCLUSIONS Considering the limitations of the present study and previous studies, further studies are recommended. It seems that students' knowledge of majors and careers are increasing, but it is necessary to plan and make more effort to recognize personal characteristics and personality compatibility with professions. Knowledge of professions and personalities along with each other are valuable and neglecting one would be an obstacle to achieve goals including decreasing job resignation, increasing job efficiency and satisfaction.