VOCATIONAL VALUES OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO CHOOSE TO STUDY NURSING

Pre-university students' interests and vocational values are decisive in continuing their studies. The decision to pursue the Degree is mostly gestated during secondary education, which reveals the importance of the guidance function at this stage.This article presents a descriptive, cross-sectional study with a non-probabilistic survey. Four thousand seven hundred fourteen students in the 2nd year of Baccalaureate from the Community of Madrid participated. They chose four preferred university degrees and completed a questionnaire on Basic Academic Professional Interests-CIBAP and another on Vocational Values.The MANOVA and the Mann-Whitney U tests determine significant differences in the interests and vocational values of 2nd-year high school students who opt for a Nursing degree about their peers who opt for other university studies, specifically in 10 of the 20 areas of professional interests and in 8 of the vocational values. Said differences are more significant for those who choose Nursing in the areas of Health, Experimental Sciences, Protection, and Safety, and in the vocational values of Helping people, Developing transcendental values, and Having the conviction of doing something valuable and essential.Second-year Baccalaureate students who choose to study Nursing present a differential and characteristic vocational profile concerning other students. Its knowledge by guidance professionals would support the crucial process of reflection for the choice of university studies.