Evaluation of Nurses' Professionalism Levels: Sample of Balikesir

INTRODUCTION: The research was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the level of professionalism of the nurses. METHODS: The universe of research was consist of 380 nurses working in two public hospitals located in Bal？kesir province center between February 2015 and July 2015, and sample of the research is 260 nurses who accepted to participate. Data were collected using the personal information form and Inventory of Professional Attitude at Occupation. The data were evaluated by computerized aided percentile, mean, Mann Whitney U and Kruskall Wallis test. RESULTS: It was determined that the average age of the nurses was 34.8±7.6, 89.2% were female, 44.2% of them had a bachelor degree, 50.8% worked as a service nurse and 24.6% had 16-20 years professional experience. While it was found that 66.5% of the nurses liked the nursing profession and 43.8% did not want to prefer the recurrent nursing profession, 59.6% defined themselves as professionals. The Inventory of Professional Attitude at Occupation total score was found as 137.69 ± 12.9. Gender, occupational experience and position of nurses did not affect occupational professional attitude (p>0.05); education status, liking of the profession, preference of re-preference and professional definition of self-affects professional attitude (p <0.05). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: According to the results obtained from the research, it was determined that the professional status of the nurses is at a good level. It is recommended that nurses be assessed for their development in professional areas of behavior and that continuing education for professionalism be encouraged