THE PUBLICS IMAGE OF NURSING AS DESCRIBED TO BACCALAUREATE PRENURSINGSTUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of nursing's image by nonnursing students, professionals, and other nonnursing ind ividuals, Because the image of nursing has been a long-standing proble m for nurses, an indication of the overall effectiveness of various in dividual and group efforts to change the public's image of nursing ove r the last several years was examined, Content analysis was used to an alyze 831 responses to determine the respondent's perceptions of nurse s and the nursing profession, Results indicated that the majority of i ndividuals who participated in the study believed that nursing is most closely associated with the concept of caring, even though the meanin g and practice of nurse caring was defined very differently. Copyright (C) 1998 by W.B. Saunders Company.