Abstract:
Background: Nursing is a health care profession, which focuses on the care of individuals,
families, and communities which used to attain, maintain or recover optimum health for all
individuals of all ages and cultural background who are healthy and ill in a holistic manner
based on the individuals’ physical, emotional, psychological, intellectual, social and spiritual
needs. The perception of nursing profession perceived by the patients and society influences
the participation of new generation to join in the nursing profession. In which studies show
that misconception and stereotype which harms the image of nursing profession due to
misunderstanding of the nursing profession facts.
Objectives: To assess perception of patients towards nursing profession and associated
factors among admitted patients in Jimma medical center, Southwest Ethiopia 2019.
Methods: Institutional based cross sectional study was conducted in Jimma medical center
from April 3/2019 to April 15/2019. Systematic sampling technique was used to select 234
study participants using structured interviewer administered questionnaire. The collected
data were cleaned and entered into Epidata version 3.1 then exported to SPSS version 23 for
analysis. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis were done and the significant
variables explained by using unstandardized ß value and p value
Results: Among 234 respondents the overall score of perception towards nursing profession
was 52.77% and on tertiary classification of the perception score, 99(42.4%) with high
perception 61(26%) with medium perception 74(31.6%) of them had low perception, towards
nursing profession. Age of the respondents (41-60 years) with the value of (ß= -1.172,
p=0.042), their area of residence with value of (ß= 1.853, p= 0.008), social value and role
characteristics with value of (ß= 2.065, p= 0.0001) and nursing care satisfaction with value
of (ß= 1.769, p= 0.001) were factors affected perception towards nursing profession in
multivariable linear regression analysis.
Conclusion and Recommendation: This study revealed that the overall level of patients’
perception towards nursing profession was low. Only 42.4% had high level of perception.
Nurses’ self-description, activity explanation for the patients, creation of awareness on the
importance of nursing profession in the health care system, community mobilization about
the profession and provision of refreshment training could be given for those nurses working
in Jimma medical center.
