Analysing of self esteem's efficacy to the nurse's occupational perceptions status

In this descriptive study, it was intended to investigate the effect of self-esteemover the perception status of their profession of the nurses. The sample of the studywas consisted of 145 nurses working in Celal Bayar University Hafsa Sultan Hospitaland who agreed to participate in the research. The data were collected with sociodemographicinformation form, Nursing Job Perception Scale and the RosenbergSelf-Esteem Scale. Evaluation of the data was made by using the package program"SPSS 10.0 for Windows" with number, percentage, mean, standard deviation,Oneway Anova, Student t test, Mann-Whitney U test.According to the research results, the subscale mean score for theprofessional qualification of nurses was found as 73.40±6.79, the subscale meanscore for professional status was found as 14.72±3.43, the total mean score forperception of profession was found as 88.13±6.22.It was determined that, subscale mean score for the professional qualificationof nurses, the nurses were influenced by gender, order of preference for OSS, theircurrent thought about nursing and the status of being pleased with hospitalconditions; subscale mean score for professional status, the nurses were influencedby number of children, order of preference for OSS; and the total mean score forperception of profession, they were influenced by number of children, order ofpreference for OSS and the status of being pleased with hospital conditions (p>0.05).When nurses' self-esteem levels were evaluated, it was determined that93.1% of them had high self esteem, 4.8% of them had moderate self esteem and2.1% of them had low self esteem. It was also determined that mean score of selfesteem was affected by the profession of nurses' husbands and their monthly incomelevels (p<0.05). While the vast majority of the nurses participating in this study havehigh self esteem, their perception of profession is also in quite good level.When the perception of profession of nurses was compared with their selfesteem levels, there was no statistically significant relationship was determinedbetween them.Key words: Nursing, Perception of Profession, Self Esteem