INVESTIGATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTIONS OF MINORITY FRESHMAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS TOWARD THE NURSING PROFESSION.
Contributors: Texas Southern University.
Published: 1982
Number of pages: 115
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Black Studies.
Description: The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge and perceptions of minority freshman university students toward the career of professional nursing. Specifically, the study was designed to answer the following question: what knowledge and perceptions do minority freshman university students have toward the nursing profession with respect to job desirability, admission requirements, tasks performed, pleasantness ratings of the tasks performed, and exposure to health career role models?.

Four hundred minority freshman university students, 186 males and 214 females, enrolled at four universities in Houston, Texas, during the Spring semester of the 1981-82 academic year, were randomly selected subjects of the investigation. To determine the knowledge and perceptions of minority freshman university students, the Survey of Opinions on Careers was administered. In order to determine whether a significant relationship existed between the knowledge and perceptions of minority freshman university students toward the career of professional nursing, a Chi Square test was selected. The .05 level was preestablished as a criterion of statistical significance.

Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that: (1) The job desirability scales indicated that the minority freshman university students' attitudes toward nursing were highly positive in terms of financial reward, personal reward, occupational status, work enjoyment, challenge, and advancement opportunities; neutral in terms of the degree of self-supervision; and negative in terms of work hours and work difficulty. Students thought that a nursing career required a considerable amount of education and was very female-oriented. (2) Students thought the registered nurse most frequently performed relatively low skill level tasks that are usually delegated to licensed vocational nurses (e.g., taking temperatures and blood pressures, giving shots). (3) The administration of medications, taking temperatures, taking blood pressures and charting patient progress records were considered pleasant tasks; while giving shots, assisting in the operating room, collecting specimens, and dressing surgical wounds were unpleasant tasks. (4) The students had been exposed to health career role models through volunteer work in hospitals or personal acquaintance with health professionals. (5) Students were uninformed about course requirements (i.e., algebra, biology, chemistry) and certain noncourse requirements (i.e., high school transcripts, College Board Examination, and Pre-Nursing Examinations) needed for admission to schools of nursing.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: A, page: 2376.

Thesis (ED.D.)--TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY, 1982.

School code: 0441.