Abstract:

The number of men in nursing has remained low despite the many benefits and opportunities associated with the profession. Currently, males make up only 6.6% of the three million nursing professionals in the United States. The study assessed the knowledge and perception of secondary school students towards nursing as a career choice for men in selected Local Government of Lagos State, Nigeria. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that was carried out on 293 respondents. A multi staged sample technique was used to select study participants. Results revealed that majority of respondents (91.4%) knew nursing as a profession and 88.9% knew that a legal certificate was required to practice nursing, Respondents generally demonstrated a good knowledge of Nursing. There was also a general positive perception towards Nursing as a career (93%). Even thou there was a positive perception towards nursing as a career choice for men generally (53%), half (50.2%) of the students in this study disagreed that nursing was a career choice for female only. Thirty-seven (37%) percent of the students stated that nursing was not a masculine type of career for males to pursue. Also, 65.6% of respondents agreed that nursing was more appropriate for females because they are more caring. There is a need for secondary school students to be aware of what nursing as a profession entails and that gender is not a determining factor of being a better nurse.

Keywords: knowledge, Perception, Nursing, career choice, men.

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