| This qualitative study described how 74 high school students in an affluent Midwestern city, who reported frequent movie/television watching behavior, interpreted the image of nursing in American movies/television and whether these perceptions affected their career decision to choose or not choose nursing. Nine focus groups were analyzed for themes using NUD*IST, a qualitative computer software program.;The students reported that family, friends, personal experiences, and the movies/television provided information about what nurses did, what nurses wore, where nurses worked, and how nurses behaved. 66% of the students knew a registered nurse and 65% reported that movies/television helped them understand nursing. Out of 31 nurse characteristics caring, friendly, compassionate, kind, nurturing, and capable were attributed most often to nurses in the movies/television on a rating scale, and promiscuous, sexpot, naive, expert, and rigid the least often. Six themes emerged from the image data: nurses are caring and nurturing; nurses are anyone that is not a doctor; nursing is a vocation not a profession; nurses are handmaidens to the physicians; nurses are stereotyped as young, white, female, maternal, and second class; and nurses on the screen speak as loudly as personal experiences.;The students reported that adolescents make career decisions from grade school through college and are influenced by the programs that they watch and personal experiences. Three themes emerged from the career-decision data: movies/television can substitute for "real life" experiences, society pressures students on making career decisions; and nurse recruitment ideas can influence adolescent career decision-making. Advertising suggestions to promote nursing included an appeal to a broader, more diverse market and an increased focus on the satisfaction received from helping people.;The unexpected findings included: students in an affluent neighborhood are not interested in a nursing career, there was an increased cost-consciousness of students attending a private Catholic school compared to public school, that school counselors may not be a good source for college/career information, and there was a lack of positive stories about nurses from family members. |
