ROLE OF NURSING AS A CAREER IN IN WOMEN EMPOWERMENT WITH REFERENCE TO CHENNAI

Abstract

Nursing personnel, as front line health care providers, play a vital and crucial role in our national life.  Recognising the potential contribution of nurses to primary health care they have been rightly refereed to as the powerhouse of change. There are many social and economic constraints which restrict their active participation in their sphere of activities and inhibit articulation of their interests.   Their problems are multidimensional and there is much to be desired in respect of improving their efficiency in the work place.  It is taken for granted that women join this nursing profession as a last resort.  The services rendered by these qualified and trained nurses are also treated as manual services by the bosses as well as the patients alike.  The objectives of the study are to identify the reasons which attract women to choose nursing as a career, identity dimensions of women empowerment with respect to nursing as a career and to know the influence of each of dimension on choosing nursing as a career. On the question of the most dominant dimension of empowerment economic empowerment  is rated as the most dominant dimension and the least rated dimension is seen to be social empowerment.