Özet:

Objective: The most important goal of graduate education is to train scientists who research, generate new ideas, are curious and critical, participate in multidisciplinary studies and act according to ethical principles. Nurses who care for individuals of all ages will be able to improve their nursing care by following the advances in health and being open to developments. This research was conducted to determine students' attitudes at the nursing department at a private university towards graduate education. Methods: The research was conducted in a descriptive design with a private university's nursing students in Istanbul between July and October 2019. Without choosing the sample, all of the students (N: 260) who agreed to participate in the study constituted the sample (n: 167). The data were collected online via students’ mail by using “Personal Information Form” and “Attitude towards Graduate Education Scale”. The scale is a 5-point Likert type scale consisting of twenty-seven items. It consists of four sub-dimensions: interest and importance, fear and anxiety, lack of need and desire and want. The data were analyzed using descriptive tests (such as frequency, percentage, and average), Mann Whitney U, and Kruskal Wallis H tests in the SPSS 24.0 program. Results: It was determined that 73.1% of the students were female, 40.7% were in 2nd grade, and 61.1% of student’s socioeconomic status were in the middle. And, 92.8% of the students continue with graduate education. It has been determined that 34.8% of those who want to get graduate degree want to be an academic and 24.5% of them want to get graduate study in the Department of Surgical Nursing. The mean score of the students' Attitude towards Graduate Education Scale is 52.05 ± 19.2. It has been determined that the mean score of the attitude scale towards graduate education for those who want to receive postgraduate education is significantly medium in all sub-dimensions. Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that nursing students' attitudes towards graduate education were at a medium level. Considering the status of willingness to receive graduate education, it was found that the scale and sub-dimensions mean scores of those who did not want to take it were statistically significantly higher than those who did. In line with the results obtained from the research, the university should provide the information about graduate education and the students should be supported to encourage for graduate education.