Abstract

Introduction: The first and most critical stage in nursing profession is when an individual enters the educational or apprenticeship environment as a nursing student. Therefore, the students' professional attitudes and behaviours are very important during the courses. Aim: To determine the professional attitude in Iranian Nursing Students. Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2015 to October 2016 at Ilam University of Medical Sciences. One hundred fourteen nursing students who studied in fourth to eighth semesters were randomly selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. Data collection tools consisted of a demographic information form and the Inventory to Measure Professional Attitudes in Student Nurses. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics through SPSS 18, while p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: A total of 75 (65.8) of the student were interested in the nursing profession. A 60.52 and 15.8 of students considered educators and nurses to be effective in their professionalism, respectively. A 13.2 of the subjects were members of the Iranian Nursing Organization. The mean and standard deviation for the total score of the professional attitude was 91.01 +/- 15.7, which was above average. Scores in different factors of professionalism were contribution to the increase in scientific information load (15.97 +/- 3.35), collaboration (15.97 +/- 3.35), community service (10.93 +/- 2.74), ethical codes and theory (10.73 +/- 2.55), competence and continuous education (9.76 +/- 2.51), participation in professional organisations and professional development (9.61 +/- 2.17), autonomy (9.51 +/- 2.00) and working in committees (6.85 +/- 1.82). Conclusion: Iranian nursing students are at moderate level of professionalism. Therefore, it seems necessary to identify the existing weaknesses in different aspects and try to fix them, while improving their strengths during student life.