Young nurses reproduced cultural images and stereotypes
of a nurse’s role and behaviour. They described what kind
of people nurses are supposed to be: nurturing, altruistic,
and willing to serve. Similar traditional stereotypes of “goodwomen” have been presented on media and in public when
nursing has been presented as a “virtue script” [73]. Nursing,
as paradigmatically women’s work, has been historically
devalued [74]. Nursing profession has been associated with
femininity [75] and powerlessness [76, 77], and stereotypical
public images—such as angels with pretty faces and empty
heads, physicians’ handmaids, or naughty nurses—still exist
in Western countries [77]. These young nurses did not,
however, place themselves within these expected stereotypic
images of nurses.This could be one reason why these nurses
left profession—talented and bright women did not fit the
stereotypes of nurses as nurturing and serving and of being
lower in the hospital hierarchy