PROFESSIONAL STATUS OF NURSES IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIAL PERCEPTION

Nursing is a demanding profession, and healthcare is seen as one of the key values of modern society. Despite the importance of this profession, its status in society is not always sufficiently appreciated.Purpose. The aim of the paper is to analyse the perception of nurses' work by general public, focusing on aspects such as nurse- patient communication, social significance and contribution of the profession, required qualities of nurses, and the difficulty of their profession.Materials and methods. An inductive statistics tool was used to test the hypotheses. We used the chi-squared independence test χ2test. We make the decision about the significance of the differences based on the calculated p-value and a significance level of 0.05.Results. The research confirmed that the nursing profession is perceived mostly positively by the public, but the outdated view of the nurse as a physician's assistant persists. Personal acquaintance with a nurse increased the perception of the difficulty of their job, with women rating it as more difficult more often than men. Patient's subjective experience influenced the evaluation of the profession, with positive experiences leading to a higher appreciation of its demands.Conclusions. Nursing is a dynamically developing profession that is constantly expanding its competencies and placing higher demands on professional knowledge and skills. Nurses' responsibility for patients, their own work and professional development is constantly increasing. Despite its demands, this profession remains an irreplaceable mission that requires not only professional preparation, but also a high level of empathy and willingness to help others.