The Role of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting in People’s Perspective Toward Nurses

Background: Because media have an essential role in people’s insight into different professions, this study was carried out to investigate the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in the public attitude toward the nursing profession in people living in Arak City, Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the first six months of 2018. The study sample comprised 400 citizens who were selected by cluster sampling method. The public engagement with Iran national broadcasting and the people’s perspective toward nursing profession were measured using two researcher-made questionnaires. The obtained data were analyzed by Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient in SPSS V. 16. Results: The results showed that 67% of the participants have engaged with the media. The average score of non-professional (65.15±11.21) attitude toward the nursing profession was more than the professional attitudes level 1 (64.40±12.03) and level 2 (18.44±3.58). Engagement with national media was associated with non-professional attitude toward nursing (P=0.032) while it was not related to professional attitude level 1 (P=0.62) and level 2 (P=0.22).  Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that people’s engagement with the media is related to the creation of a non-professional attitude toward nursing profession, i.e. the more people interact with broadcasting, the less professional attitude toward nursing they have. Producing programs which shows a real professional and accurate picture of nurses in Iran broadcasting are recommended.