Urban high school students' perceptions of nursing as a career choice.

One hundred and fourteen high school students (n = 114) completed the Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs Questionnaire. A two-sided Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test revealed that students perceived an ideal career as having more power, more positive evaluation, and less activity than a career in nursing would. The areas of greatest perceived disparity and those that showed nursing less favorably were making decisions for one's self, always having a job, working in a safe place, making a lot of money, and earning appreciation and respect. Areas in which nursing appeared more favorable were working with one's hands and being very busy. Caring for others and working hard were valued equally for both careers. Students' perceptions of nursing may have been based on misinformation, on a lack of awareness about the options available within the profession, or based simply on a higher regard for a different career. Future endeavors to recruit these students into nursing must include exposure to the multiple opportunities that await them as experienced by contemporary nursing professionals.