Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Level 2, Clinical Research Centre, Block MD11 10 Medical Drive, Singapore, 117597, Singapore.
Nursing Research Capacity Building, Aga Khan University, P. O. Box 8842, Kampala, Uganda, East Africa.
BMC Med Educ. 2018 Jan 26;18(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s12909-018-1118-1.
Globally more registered nurses need to be recruited to meet the needs of aging populations and increased co-morbidity. Nursing recruitment remains challenging when compared to other healthcare programs. Despite healthcare students having similar motivation in joining the healthcare industry, many did not consider nursing as a career choice. This study aims to identify the deterrents to choosing nursing among healthcare undergraduates by examining the differences in the factors influencing healthcare career choices and nursing as a career choice.
A cross sectional study was conducted using a 35-parallel items instrument known as Healthcare Career Choice and Nursing Career Choice scale. Six hundred and four (n = 604) first year medical, pharmacy, dentistry and social science students from a university in Singapore completed the survey.
Nursing as a career was perceived by healthcare students to be more likely influenced by prior healthcare exposure, the nature of the work, job prospects, and social influences. Lack of autonomous decision making, perceived lower ability to make diagnosis, having to attend to patients' hygiene needs, engendered stigma, and lack of parental support were identified as deterring factors to choosing nursing as a career.
An understanding of the deterrents to choosing nursing as career allows policy makers and educational leaders to focus on recruitment strategies. These include providing more exposure to nurses' roles in early school years, helping young people to overcome the fear of providing personal hygiene care, promoting nurses' autonomous nursing practice, addressing gender stigma, and overcoming parental objection.
为满足人口老龄化和合并症增加的需求，需要在全球范围内招募更多注册护士。与其他医疗保健计划相比，护理人员的招聘仍然具有挑战性。尽管医疗保健专业的学生在加入医疗保健行业方面有类似的动机，但许多人并没有将护理视为职业选择。本研究旨在通过检查影响医疗保健职业选择和护理职业选择的因素的差异，确定医疗保健专业本科生选择护理的障碍。
采用横断面研究设计，使用一种称为医疗保健职业选择和护理职业选择量表的 35 个平行项目工具。来自新加坡一所大学的 604 名（n=604）一年级医学生、药剂师、牙医和社会科学学生完成了这项调查。
医疗保健专业的学生认为护理职业更有可能受到先前的医疗保健接触、工作性质、工作前景和社会影响的影响。缺乏自主决策、认为自己诊断能力较低、需要照顾患者的个人卫生需求、产生污名化以及缺乏父母支持被认为是选择护理作为职业的障碍因素。
了解选择护理作为职业的障碍因素可以使政策制定者和教育领导者专注于招聘策略。这些策略包括在早期学年为学生提供更多接触护士角色的机会，帮助年轻人克服提供个人卫生护理的恐惧，促进护士自主护理实践，解决性别污名化问题，并克服父母的反对。
