A Study to Assess the Knowledge and Attitude of Female Students towards Nursing Profession in a Selected Higher Secondary School, Kottayam, Kerala

Abstract

A descriptive study was conducted by third-year BSc Nursing students of Little Lourdes College of Nursing to assess the knowledge and attitude of female students towards the nursing profession in a selected higher secondary school, Kottayam, Kerala. The objectives of the study were to determine the knowledge of female students towards the nursing profession, the attitude of female students towards the nursing profession and to find a correlation between the knowledge and attitude of higher secondary female students towards the nursing profession. A convenient sampling technique was used to select 30 samples from the population. The instrument used for the study was the Likert scale. The structured tool was divided into three sections, Section A, B and C. Section A comprised of five questions regarding demographic variables. Section B consists of 15 questions solely to assess the knowledge of the students and Section C consist of 10 questions to assess the attitude of the students towards the nursing profession. A pilot study was conducted on 6 female students, at a selected higher secondary school Kidangoor to assess the feasibility of the study. The data was collected and analyzed by using inferential and descriptive statistics. The major findings of the study were, among the total 30 samples, 10 samples (33.7%) had poor knowledge, 20 samples (66.7%) had average knowledge regarding the nursing profession and also among them 23 students (76.7%) had uncertain attitude, 7 students (23.3%) having positive attitude regarding nursing profession. It was found that there was a significant correlation between the knowledge and attitude of higher secondary females towards the nursing profession.