Bachelor of Nursing students career choices: A three-year longitudinal study

McCann, Terence, Clark, Eileen and Lu, Sai (2010) Bachelor of Nursing students career choices: A three-year longitudinal study. Nurse Education Today, 30 (1). pp. 31-36. ISSN 0260-6917

Abstract

This paper presents the findings of a survey which explored the career preferences of Australian Bachelor of Nursing students for certain clinical specialities. A convenience sample was recruited, with data collected three times between 2005 and 2007. With first-year students, acute care nursing of the adult and child and midwifery were the most popular career choices, whereas considerably less were interested in mental health or aged care nursing, and nearly two-fifths were undecided. By third-year, there was a shift in career preferences, with acute care of the adult and mental health being the most popular choices. In contrast, midwifery and aged care were the least preferred careers. The study provides some evidence students commence their course with a predominantly lay-informed image of nursing, but this may be tempered by favourable curricular influences towards the mental health field. However, the curriculum discourages students from pursuing a career in aged care and midwifery.

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Item type Article
URI https://vuir.vu.edu.au/id/eprint/8520
DOI 10.1016/j.nedt.2009.05.014
Official URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S...
Subjects Historical > Faculty/School/Research Centre/Department > School of Nursing and Midwifery
Historical > FOR Classification > 1110 Nursing
Historical > SEO Classification > 9204 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health)
Keywords ResPubID19531, bachelor of nursing, career preferences, longitudinal study, students
Citations in Scopus 81 - View on Scopus
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