Medical student's perceptions of the graduate (bachelor) nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Close cooperation between health care workers, doctors and nurses in particular, is necessary in order to achieve positive outcomes of health care - in other words, the health of each individual within a society. Insufficient knowledge about the competencies and responsibilities requested from health care workers for doing certain jobs is one of the most commonly cited obstacles to the achievement of a truly professional cooperation. Therefore, the main aim of the studies was to determine the attitudes related to the medical students' perceptions of the graduate nurses. Method: The research was conducted in the form of a cross-sectional study using a sample that consisted of 126 medical students from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Novi Sad. A Polish version of a questionnaire about the professional status of nurses - Professional Nursing Image Survey was used for the assessment of medical students' perceptions of graduate nurses. The Program SPSS for Windows, version 14.0 was used for the statistical data processing. The values p<0.05 were taken as relevant. Results: The results of the research showed that the medical students mostly gave low ranking to the skills and abilities important for the work of nurses, where the professional independence of graduate nurses was ranked as the least significant. They also identified a very narrow scope of work of nurses neglecting a holistic approach in patients care and therapy. Conclusion: From the viewpoint of medical students, obligatory tasks and duties of nurses are those belonging to the domain of diagnostic, therapeutic and assisting procedures.