Perception of newly admitted and outgoing b. sc (n) students towards nursing profession in selected colleges, district, Ludhiana, Punjab

Students come into nursing education with inherent lay beliefs of nursing that evolve over years of education, enabling them to be professionally socialized into nursing career. The study was carried out to compare the perception of newly admitted and outgoing B. Sc (N) students towards nursing perception. Comparative research design was used in this study to compare the perception of newly admitted and outgoing B. Sc (N) students towards nursing perception. 250 newly admitted and 250 outgoing B. Sc (N) students were taken in study by total enumerative sampling technique from selected college of nursing, District Ludhiana, Punjab. Checklist on perception about nursing profession was given to students and method of data collection was self report. Results of study was found that there was slight variation in perception of outgoing B. Sc (N) students as compare to newly admitted B. Sc(N) students about nursing perception. The study concludes that nursing students perception have evolved over the four years of education and it may be influenced by numerous factors like vast clinical exposure, long durations of clinical postings, personal and cultural reasons that may results into change in perception of nursing students about profession and that may be the reason for variation in perception of outgoing B. Sc (N) students. The study recommends there should be provision of guidance and counselling services along with perception testing. Further cohort studies to assess the perception of undergraduate nursing students regarding nursing profession.