Why Do Nursing and Midwifery Students Choose Their Profession in Turkey?

INTRODUCTION: This is a study carried out in order to find out the opinions of nursing and midwifery students about their professions
METHODS: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted on Yuzuncu Yil University Health School students in 2014-2015 spring term. No sampling was made. 473 voluntary students were included in the study (except the cases of absence, suspension of registration and non-voluntary students). The data were collected by the question form prepared by the researchers, and were evaluated in SPSS software with the application of percentage and chi-squared tests.
RESULTS: It was found out that the majority of our students have chosen the profession due to the ease in finding a job. It was also found out that half of our students had a desire to change their professions. On the other hand, the ones who made their career choice in the light of strong reasons did not have such intentions. While most of our students (92.8%) knew their profession was taking major roles in treatment and aftercare periods, a significant proportion (42.5%) did not consider their professional status positively, and almost half of them (43.6%) stated that they believed their profession was not well-known enough. Students stated that the education of nursing and midwifery needed to be given at the bachelor level (84.4%) and would like to specialize in branches of their profession. Students (87.9%) also evaluated the participation of males to the profession positively.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In the 21st century, employment is a major reason for profession selection and our students seem to have made their choice in accordance with this reality. It was determined that our students were aware of the responsibilities of their profession, but were affected by the negative public image of their professions.