Metaphor Perceptions of Nurses About Their Own Profession

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The main purpose of this study is to reveal perceptions of the nurses through metaphors. Descriptive research design was used in the study. METHODS: The study population consisted of nurses (250 nurses) working at Nevsehir Public Hospital. However, it was carried out with 90 nurses, because the researchers could not reach some nurses, some nurses did not want to participate in the study, and some nurses did not answer all the questions. Data were collected via semi-structured questionnaire forms, including open-ended questions. Each nurse was asked to produce a metaphor about their profession and and to explain the reason why they produced that metaphor. RESULTS: After termination of the study, it was determined that 28 different metaphors were produced. Of all the metaphors, 10 of them had positive, 9 of them had negative, and 9 of them had both positive and negative imagery The most frequently used metaphors were 'peon', 'angel' and 'slave. 'In addition, chi-square test was used to understand whether there was a relationship between the categories of metaphors (positive, negative, and both positive and negative) and demographic features of nurses. The analyses did not demonstrate any difference between demographic features of the participants. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Using metaphors contributed to reveal the positive and negative aspects of the nursing profession. The study signified that the majority of nurses (%48,9) produced negative metaphors and they were not satisfied with their profession.

Keywords

• nurse
• metaphors
• nursing