A Study to assess the Knowledge and Attitude of Nursing Students Towards Nursing Profession among the Students of Manipal College of Medical Sciences (Nursing Programme) Pokhara, Kaski District, Nepal

Objectives: To assess the knowledge of nursing students towards nursing profession, to assess the attitude of nursing students towards nursing profession, to find the association between the knowledge and the selected variables, to find the relationship between the knowledge and attitude on nursing profession.

Materials and Methods: A survey conducted among 183 nursing students of Manipal College of Medical Sciences (Nursing Programme), Pokhara, Kaski District, Nepal.

Results: Regarding knowledge about nursing profession, 91.8% of the nursing students had fair knowledge towards nursing profession.

Regarding attitude towards nursing profession, out of 183 students, 98.4% of the student showed positive attitude towards the statements on the scope of nursing is very broad and highly demanded, 81.4% on a nurse is a professional liaison between the physician and the patient, 77.6% on nurses work with high technology, 74.9% on nurses are capable of independent practice, 96.1% on the service given by nurses is as important as that given by physicians, 84.7% on nurses with advanced degrees make important contributions to patient care, 86.9% on nurses feel good about what they do, 98.36% on a healthy nurse will be able to organize her work properly and confidently, 99.4% on a nurse must have a friendly and helpful nature and behaviour towards patient, 99.4% on a nurse should be able to cope with any kind of difficult situation, 71% on there is no clear cut written policy for nursing profession in most of the nursing institutions and hospitals, 56.8% on media concealed the role of nurse to the public, 90.7% on the public does not know the different cadres of nurses with different qualifications, 66.1% on nurses have limited voices with administrators, and 57.3% on nurses receive little respect from other health care providers and society.

Out of 183 students, 92.9% had negative attitude towards the statements on anyone can be a nurse easily, 75.9% on nurses follow the physician's orders without any questions, 55.7% on nurses make decisions for themselves, 97.3% on nurses' work is just giving injection and care to patient, and 68.3% showed negative attitude on career ladder of nursing profession is limited.

There was no significant association between the knowledge score and selected variables like age, educational qualification, professional qualification, type of family, residence, occupation of father and occupation of mother.

There was significant relationship between the knowledge and attitude (p = 0.01)

Conclusion: The study was conducted aiming to find out the levels of knowledge, and attitude of the nursing students towards nursing profession. The study findings revealed that majority 91.8% of the nursing students were having fair knowledge towards nursing profession while 2.2% of the students had poor knowledge.

Majority 96.2% of the students had good attitude towards nursing profession and none of the students were with poor attitude.

There was no significant association between the knowledge score and selected variables but there was significant relationship between the knowledge and attitude (p=0.01).