Nursing students' career identity, satisfaction with major, and career stress by career decision type.

AIM

This study aimed to understand the career decision types of nursing college students and accordingly identify their career identity, satisfaction with major, and career stress.

METHODS

Convenience sampling was used to recruit nursing students (N = 220) attending the same college in Korea. Data were collected from May 1 to May 30, 2017. General characteristics included sex, grade, religion, extracurricular activities, and motive for their nursing major choice. The instruments included career decision type, career identity, satisfaction with major, and career stress.

RESULTS

Total cases of clusters showed 79 (39.5%) individuals in the undecided-uncomfortable type, 75 (37.5%) in decided-comfortable, 32 (16.0%) in undecided-comfortable, and 14 (7.0%) in decided-uncomfortable. The results indicated statistically significant differences in grade (P = .001), religion (P = .040), nursing major selection motive (P = .030), career identity (P < .001), satisfaction with major (P < .001), and career stress (P < .001) by career decision type.

CONCLUSIONS

Customized career education programs should be provided to nursing students to improve their career identity and satisfaction with major, while lowering career stress, considering career decision-comfort and decidedness, along with the reasons why some students find career decisions emotionally uncomfortable.