CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The perception of the societies towards the nursing profession has varied throughout history. From a general picture, public images of nursing such as that nurses have low socio-economic status, nursing is perceived as women’s profession, and that it has a role of supporting the doctor, are common. However, during the last three decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, nursing has made tremendous progress as a discipline, especially in terms of professional development. Nursing is accepted in our country as a professional job of self-sacrifice, caring and helping patients (Oz, 2004). On the basis of a professional job, there lies the professional loyalty and organization (Dogan Merih and Arslan, 2012). The premises of adopting and professionally applying the profession, that is to say, vocational consciousness, is laid during the time of being a student and continues throughout the professional life (Beydag and Arslan, 2008). Perception in nursing students contributes to the formation of the meaning and perspective attributed to the profession as a result of increase on the knowledge of nursing practices and experience (Andersson, 1993). Perceiving the professional qualities of nursing is achieved through the first clinical application (Eser, Khorshid and Denat, 2008). However, questioning professional perception beginning from the first step to the university should be among the first targets (Lai et al., 2008). The meanings attributed to the profession enable the development of the profession in the following years and undertake an important place in increasing the job satisfaction of the members (Sirin et al., 2008). Self-conception, self-esteem, recruitment and performance are thought to have impact on nursing students' perception of nursing as a profession (Wallace, 2007). Brodie et al. (2004) found in their study of the students’ perceptions towards nursing profession that the students’ professional perceptions before nursing education were significantly different (Brodie et al., 2004). They expressed that the change in the students’ nursing profession perceptions was related to the duration of being exposed to both educational and clinical settings. Before beginning to have nursing education, many students accepted the nursing profession as a highly ordinary profession. They underestimated the depth of knowledge and responsibility in the role of nursing profession. As the students progressed through nursing education processes, they realized that the value and independence of nursing profession was versatile and diverse (Brodie et al., 2004). In their study conducted to investigate the impact of clinical applications on the students’ perspectives of their professions, Demirkiran et al. (2005) found that there were positive changes in majority of the students’ (80.9%) perspectives of the profession after the first clinical application (Demirkiran, Turk and Denat, 2005). Denat et al. (2016) found in their study that the perceptions of nursing students towards the profession changed in the positive way as they progressed through nursing education process (Denat, Gurol Arslan and Sahbaz, 2016).

        The positive perception of the nursing profession is of great importance for the students who will choose the profession and therefore for the society. When the existing studies in the literature were examined, it was found that there were many studies related to professional perceptions of nursing students, nurses and other health professionals (Brodie et al., 2004; Demirkiran, Turk and Denat, 2005; Wallace, 2007; Garbee and Killacky, 2008; Taskin Yilmaz, Tiryaki Sen and Demirkaya, 2015; Akman Yilmaz et al., 2016; Denat, Gurol Arslan and Sahbaz, 2016; Ozmen and Cetinkaya, 2016).

1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Every profession has its own challenges; however the challenges faced by nursing as profession has to do with the variation of people’s perception about the nursing. Most people tend to disregard nursing; they see medical doctors more as health personnel than nurses. This made nursing profession not so attractive in most places in Nigeria.  Secondly the remuneration structure for nursing is usually not encouraging compared to that of doctors. Lastly there have been series of studies on nursing as a profession but not even a single study has been carried out on the perception of the importance of nursing among residents of Makurdi L.G.A, Benue state; hence a need for the study.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the research work is to examine the perception of the importance of nursing among residents of Makurdi L.G.A, Benue state. The specific objectives of the study are:

1. to determine the role of nursing in Makurdi L.G.A, Benue state
2. to examine whether the residents of Makurdi L.G.A are aware of the importance of nursing in their communities
3. to determine the difference in the way the residents of Makurdi L.G.A see nursing as a profession
4. to investigate the factors affecting nursing in Makurdi L.G.A, Benue state

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study came up with research questions so as to ascertain the above stated objectives of the study. The following research questions guide the objectives of the study:

1. What is the role of nursing in Makurdi L.G.A, Benue state?
2. Are the residents of Makurdi L.G.A aware of the importance of nursing in their communities?
3. What is the difference in the way the residents of Makurdi L.G.A see nursing as a profession?
4. What are the factors affecting nursing in Makurdi L.G.A, Benue state?

1.5 STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESIS

H0: there is no significant difference in the way the residents of Makurdi L.G.A see nursing as a profession

H1: there is a significant difference in the way the residents of Makurdi L.G.A see nursing as a profession

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study on the perception of the importance of nursing among residents of Makurdi L.G.A will be of immense benefits to all the nurses in Benue state. The study will look at nursing as a profession and also determine the importance of nursing as a profession. The study will help school of nursing in Makurdi L.G.A to improve in areas that are lacking in the study of nursing as a profession. The study will also serve as a repository of information to other researchers and students that desire to carry out similar research on the above topic. Finally the study will contribute to the body of the existing literature on the perception of the importance of nursing.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers on the perception of the importance of nursing with focus on the residents of Makurdi L.G.A, River State.

1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

NURSING: Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. It includes the promotion of health, the prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people.