Nursing knowledge patterns: nurses’ image and role in society perceived by students

Abstract

Objectives: to understand high school students’ perception about the nurse’s image and role in society, from nursing knowledge patterns. Methods: phenomenographic qualitative study, developed between October 2017 and January 2018, in a public university in the countryside of the state of São Paulo, with eight Interdisciplinary Higher Education Program (Programa de Formação Interdisciplinar Superior) students. The findings were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by the phenomenography framework, supported by rereading nursing knowledge patterns. Results: two categories emerged: Perception of nurses’ image, which contemplates their positive and negative characteristics, attributes and place where they operate; and Nurses’ role in society, in which their work is compared with physicians’. Final Considerations: despite their essential role in care, subordination to medical knowledge and lack of knowledge of nurses’ functions still reflect their image.

Current Social Perception of and Value Attached to Nursing Professionals’ Competences: An Integrative Review

“…A number of studies detected widespread ignorance of nursing functions, activities, and roles, and an inability to differentiate them from those exercised by doctors [23,32,33]. However, other studies report that nursing is viewed as a health sciences profession [33] whose primary mission is to care or deliver care [22,28,33,34]. Care is understood as the delivery of help, assistance, and services to patients and sick people, for whom nurses should act as resources during their processes [22,26,34].…”

“…Nursing is understood as a profession that operates primarily in the clinical setting. There is a tendency to perceive the nursing profession as existing primarily within hospitals [28,33,34]. As a result, the hospital setting is the main symbol representing nursing, as it is viewed as the physical space in which most nurses deliver care [28,33].…”

“…There is a tendency to perceive the nursing profession as existing primarily within hospitals [28,33,34]. As a result, the hospital setting is the main symbol representing nursing, as it is viewed as the physical space in which most nurses deliver care [28,33]. Other symbols include the uniform or clothing that nurses tend to wear in hospitals [26] and the equipment and instruments they use on a daily basis: stethoscope, gloves, etc.…”

“…In addition, the sample in the study by Yilmaz [27] saw themselves working as clinical nurses in surgical and paediatric departments, for example, rather than in areas such as education or teaching, administration, and management in the healthcare sector. Other settings, such as home care [24,28] and end-of-life care [22], were rarely mentioned in the studies. Regarding health prevention, promotion, and recovery, Albar [34] reported that 84% of their sample of first-year nursing students agreed that the role of nurses was associated with health prevention, 90% with health promotion, and 94% with recovery.…”

“…Regarding health prevention, promotion, and recovery, Albar [34] reported that 84% of their sample of first-year nursing students agreed that the role of nurses was associated with health prevention, 90% with health promotion, and 94% with recovery. The techniques described include healing wounds, monitoring vital signs, taking samples, administering medication and fluids, taking anthropometric measurements, providing basic care, controlling pain, and working with technology [22,24,28,32,34]. Regarding clinical decision making, the nursing profession is even presented as "providing medical care", an undeniably vague nuance found in Elmorshedy [25].…”