This study aims to review the image of a nurse held by nursing students and their career commitment, with a focus on academic year specific characteristics and chronological changes.
　Study subjects were year 2-4 students in a university nursing program. A questionnaire survey was
conducted twice, in 2013 and 2014, covering the same subjects. Comparisons were made between the two years for each academic year, concerning the nursing students’image of a nurse and in their career commitment.
　In all three academic year levels, the external elements in their nurse image declined compared to
the previous year. In the professional elements, the third year group showed larger changes than the second year group. In terms of their career commitment, the affective factors declined in the second year group as well as in the third year groups, while the calculative factors and the normative factors showed
larger changes in the second year group than those in the third year group or the fourth year group.
　The students face the harsh reality of practice through professional learning and practical learning.
Full commitment is necessary from an early stage, soon after program enrollment, to facilitate the students’ readiness to learn nursing. Therefore, innovative teaching becomes important to raise the morale of students to learn nursing through practical training in the early stages.