Nursing students’ intentions to enter primary health care as a career option: Findings from a national survey
Section snippets
Introduction and background
Australia, like many other countries around the world, is facing increasing healthcare pressures. The ageing population and the growing prevalence of chronic illness combined with a growing demand for accessible healthcare services have emphasised the need for a sustainable, skilled healthcare workforce. Notably, this has also focused attention on the importance of the primary health care workforce (Department of Health and Ageing, 2010). The role of registered nurses within Primary Health Care
Study aim and objectives
This component of the study aimed to identify the intentions of final year (pre-registration) nursing students’ to enter PHC as a career option following registration. Further study objectives sought to identify any association between nursing students’ exposure to PHC during their education and their intention to enter PHC as a career option following registration and whether an association existed between nursing students’ participation in practice placements in the primary care setting and
Methods
A quantitative on-line (SurveyMonkey®) and anonymous cross-sectional survey of final year nursing students was conducted in Australian universities (n = 14).
Results
In total 519 questionnaires were submitted from which data from 456 were analysed. Participants ranged in age from 19–65 years (mean = 30.7) and the majority were female (89.3%; n = 413). The largest number of participants were enrolled in a Bachelor of Nursing program (90.6%; n = 413). Participant demographics are presented in Table 1. Respondents represented all Australian states and territories (Table 2). This size of this representation was not equal with the majority of responses submitted by
Discussion
The recruitment of new graduate nurses to a PHC setting directly following completion of a pre-registration tertiary nursing degree is a strategy that has the potential to significantly increase nursing capacity and retention within the PHC workforce (Gordon et al., 2014). Only 22.8% of the participating final year nursing students anticipated a career in PHC following qualification as a registered nurse. This was despite the majority of students reporting that they had completed practice
Limitations
It is recognised that several limitations influence the generalizability of findings from this study. Although the study is the first undertaken in Australia to explore the views of final year nursing students’ towards a transition program to PHC for new graduate nurses, the sample was self-selected and findings may, therefore, not reflect the views of all nursing students in Australia. Another limitation relates to the manner in which categories pertaining to career choice preferences were
Conclusion
Current and predicted nursing workforce shortages in PHC are a global concern. These shortages are expected to continue to impact on the ability of PHC settings, particularly general practice, to meet the future needs of the Australian population and the changing focus of health care policy towards the coordination of chronic illness management in the community. Innovative ways of attracting and sustaining a skilled PHC nursing workforce are urgently required.
Findings from this study have
References (24)
- et al.
Are English novice nurses prepared to work in primary care setting?
Nurse Education in Practice
(2011) - et al.
Supporting rural. Remote primary health placement experiences increases undergraduate nurse confidence
Nurse Education Today
(2013) - et al.
Pre-registration nursing degree students in rural Victoria: Characteristics and career aspirations
Collegian: The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research
(2010) - et al.
Uptake of Medicare chronic disease items in Australia by general practice nurses and Aboriginal health workers
Collegian: The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research
(2010) - et al.
Bachelor of Nursing students career choices: A three-year longitudinal study
Nurse Education Today
(2010) - et al.
Clinical placements in general practice: Relationships between practice nurses and tertiary institutions
Nurse Education in Practice
(2013) - et al.
Best practices of formal new graduate nurse transition programs: An integrative review
International Journal of Nursing Studies
(2013) Student nurses’ career preferences for working with older people: A replicated longitudinal study
International Journal of Nursing Studies
(2011)Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry Caring for Older Australians from the Department of Health & Ageing Dec 2010
(2010)Primary Health Care in Australia. A nursing and midwifery consensus view
(2009)
General practice Nurse National Survey. Report
How evidence-based workforce planning in Australia is informing policy development in the retention and distribution of the health workforce
Human Resources for Health
Cited by (35)
The impact of final-year clinical placements on nursing students' career planning for the graduate year and beyond
2024, Nurse Education in PracticeConfidence, interest and intentions of final-year nursing students regarding employment in general practice
2022, CollegianCitation Excerpt :Recruiting new graduate registered nurses (or ‘new graduate nurses') into general practice employment is one strategy to build the GPN workforce. There is limited literature which reports undergraduate nursing students’ interest in employment in PHC settings, including general practice (Bloomfield et al., 2018; Bloomfield et al., 2015; Calma et al., 2019). The literature indicates that most undergraduate nursing students prefer to work in hospitals following graduation and that PHC settings are not a priority career path immediately following graduation for many graduates (Bloomfield et al., 2015; Matarese et al., 2019).
New graduate employment in general practice: Perceptions of final-year nursing students
2021, Nurse Education in PracticeCitation Excerpt :In contrast, high tech areas including emergency departments, intensive care, operating theatres (Matarese et al., 2019), paediatrics and maternity are often reportedly preferred by students (Shen and Xiao, 2012). While there is limited research (Calma et al., 2019), few undergraduate nurses report an intention to seek employment in community-based settings (Bloomfield et al., 2018; Bloomfield et al., 2015). This mirrors the recent State of the World’s Nursing Report which highlighted the maldistribution of nurses given preferences to work in hospital settings (World Health Organization, 2020).
Transforming RN roles using an academic-practice partnership to improve healthcare access for underserved populations
2021, Journal of Professional Nursing