[Nursing and young people: preliminary study on a group of senior school students]

The aim of the study was to understand how young people see the nursing profession and to what degree they are attracted by it. The 319 students came from 3 senior schools in Perugia (Umbria) and were issued with a questionnaire : results showed that only about 10% of them were interested in the nursing profession. The reasons given to explain this lack of interest were the unsociable hours and shift work, poor career possibilities , low salary and other explanations demonstrating how little young people know about the nursing profession and the need to correct this situation at both University and Regional level.