Abstract
This study is a descriptive investigation into the image of nurses, and attempted to help to advance the profession of nursing and to provide basic data for developing strategies to improve the image of nurses. The Subject of this study was a group of 380 persons from a K Medical Centre in Seoul, including the hospital patients and their guardians, as well as the doctors, assistants and hospital administrative staff. The data have been collected from the 10th to the 30th of May, 2003. We have developed a research tool of 40 questions divided into three categories using a tool developed by Kim, H.J and KIm, H.O.(2001) verifying its construct validity. The reliability of the tool was Cronbache's ${\alpha}=.97$, and by categories, Cronbach's ${\alpha}=.86$ for service image, Cronbach's ${\alpha}=.96$ for professional image and Cronbache's ${\alpha}=.90$ for social image. The collected data have been analysed according to the purpose of this study using SPSS WIN 11.0 for real number, percentage, factors analysis, multiple regression analysis, ANOVA and $x^2$-test, and the results are as follows: 1) There was a significant difference in the image of nurses by job series of the subjects; from patients and guardians for 4.01 to doctors 3.62, assistants 3.54 and staff members 3.41 (F=36.14, p=.000). As well, there was a significant difference in service, professional and social image categories according to the position of the subjects ($F=20.36{\sim}42.35$, p=.000). 2) The main factors that affect on formation the nurse's imaging came by direct experiences with nurses at hospitals for 81.3%, by looking at the every life of the nurses that the subjects personally know for 15.5%, by mass media for 1.6% and by the accounts from the others for 1.6%. 3) 78.4% of the subjects considered that the image of nurses on mass media is described better than for real, 8.2% believed that the image is described worse than for real, and only 13.2% of the subjects perceived that the image of nurses on mass media corresponds the image of nurses in actual life. 4) 74.5% of the subjects said that they got a better image of nurses after their hospitalization while 2% got a worse one and 23.5% said to have had no changes, and the period of hospitalization had no relevance to the image of nurses (X2=5.04, P=.489). However, while 16.8% of the subjects who spent less than one week in hospital said that they got a better image of nurses, 27.5% of those who spent longer than four weeks got a better image of nurses. 5) There was a significant difference in the total image points of nurses by the patients and their guardians according to the period of hospitalization; 4.14 for 1 to 2 weeks, 4.07 for 2 to 4 weeks, 4.02 for 4 weeks and longer and 3.80 for less than a week (F=3.40, P=.019). Upon the results stated above, I should like to propose as below: 1) An investigative enquiry is needed to improve the image of nurses as though being a nurse is very hard and difficult. 2) A continuous monitoring in mass media is needed to create a positive image of nurses.