Aim. The aim of the study was to determine the impact of electronic media on the creation of nurses’ professional image. Material and methods. The survey was done in a group of 181 professionally active nurses. The study was conducted in 2015 using questionnaire created for the purpose of this research. Results. Respondents believe that electronic media have high – 43.6%, or very high – 33.1% impact on the image of their profession. Mass-media present nursing society in a bad light. The worst message in the assessment of the respondents comes from television (84%), followed by the Internet (72.9%), the least negative – radio (68.5%). Half of the respondents (50.8%) were of the opinion that the greatest impact on building the image of the profession have programs such as TV news. The respondents pointed primarily the negative elements of the image of a nurse being built on television. In their opinion television draws attention to the fact that the profession of a nurse is worse than the profession of a physician (76.8%), nurse profession is undervalued (69.6%) and exposed to strikes and protests (69.1%). The rest of electronic media send messages regarding strikes and protests, and gaps in nurses’ employment. Conclusions. In the opinion of respondents, television has the biggest influence on the creation of the nurses’ professional image in electronic media, specifically TV news programs. These programs have a negative impact on building the image of a nurse.

Key words: professional image, electronic media, Polish nurses.