One reason for African American health disparities is a lack of African American nurses, and a proposed solution to the problem is to increase the number of African American nurses. The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare male and female African American college students' perception of nursing and identify reasons they do not choose a nursing career. Gottfredson's theory was used as a framework for this study. Gottfredson proposed that gender, interests, and career associated prestige influence career choice. The research question for this study was how do African Americans perceive nursing according to interest, gender, and prestige. The revised Career Values scale from the tool Measuring Attributes of Success in College Students was used to gather data from African American college students using an online participant pool. The Levene test was used to test variance for between-subject determinants that were equal for interest (F = 0.0020, p > 0.05) prestige, (F = 1.771, p > 0.05) and overall perception of nursing (F = 0.0950, p > 0.05). According to the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, nursing career determinants were not normally distributed; therefore, the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare responses. However, the results indicated no significant (p > 0.05) difference between the groups' scores, suggesting that neither group had an interest in nursing. These findings reveal the need to increase student interest in nursing, especially to African American students, by presenting nursing as an interesting and prestigious career that is appropriate for both men and women. Attracting African Americans into nursing would provide positive social change by improving African American health outcomes through health care providers that provide culturally competent care.
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