Theme Three: Students who encounter images of nursing in popular culture often have the knowledge required to make sound choices about a possible future in the profession.

Showing a balance of romanticism and critical awareness, a final group of students appeared well prepared to assess their potential to enter the nursing profession. Given the current retention crisis in nursing education, this theme seems particularly key. Writing about a popular movie, The Bone Collector, one respondent suggested, "It seems to me they showed that nurses sometimes get too emotionally involved with their patients. They also displayed that a nurse's work is sometimes disgusting." This student, then, already recognizes that nurses are humans and that all nursing practice cannot be glamorous. Another respondent showed similar maturity: ". . . it is a hectic occupation; nurses and doctors oftentimes feel it a personal loss when a patient dies." One student even demonstrated the ability to critique images of nursing as not reflecting reality. She writes, "These books [The Strength of a Family and The Client] didn't show the nurses becoming emotionally involved, instead they were flat characters described doing their routine jobs." The respondent identifies, then, not only that nurses are not best represented as flat characters, but also that doing routine jobs does not make nurses less human.