Abstract
BackgroundThe shift from inpatient care to community patient care has had an essential impact on the nursing profession. Despite the growing demand for community nurses in many countries, their number remains relatively low and many students do not perceive this field as an interesting career to pursue. In this review we aimed to understand if exposure of undergraduate nursing students to various nursing work settings during their studies affects their work setting choices after graduation.MethodsA literature search of papers relating to work setting preferences of nursing students in Israel and other countries was performed. Israel Ministry of Health, Nursing Administration documents and other related documents were also reviewed, with a focus on the nursing training program in Israel.FindingsWhile most first-year nursing students have limited knowledge regarding the profession, in later years, their preferences for post-graduation work settings are affected by their exposure to the various clinical fields through knowledge gained in courses together with clinical practice placements. In Israel, specific classroom courses in community nursing are allocated only 6% of the total time allocated to all classroom courses in nursing, and a single clinical placement in community nursing takes place during the third or fourth year of the nursing program, exposing students to a single aspect of community nursing during their nursing training. Studies in other countries have reported that students’ experience during clinical placement contributes to shaping students’ opinions of nurses’ roles within that field. Nursing students who had a primary healthcare placement showed greater intention for working in this setting after graduation.ConclusionsThe lack of exposure to the various aspects of community nursing during undergraduate studies contributes to a lack of motivation for entering this field. Therefore, a profound change is needed in nursing training programs’ curricula to prepare graduates to face future challenges in community nursing. Whilst both hospital and community nursing are equally important, nursing leaders and policy makers must be made aware of the various factors that contribute to new registered nurses’ preferences of hospital over community nursing and build strategies for directing nurses to work in the community in order to respond to the expected nurse shortage in this setting.
Highlights
Since the 1990s many models have been developed to create conceptual and practical frameworks for integrated chronic patient care in the community, including the Chronic Disease Prevention and Management model [1] and the Chronic Care model [2]
Many studies have shown that nursing students’ choices of their post-graduation work setting are affected by their exposure to the various clinical fields through knowledge gained in courses together with clinical practice placements [16, 30,31,32,33,34]
The results showed that only 12% of students would consider working in this field while over 60% of the study participants are not at all interested in this area and 27% would consider working in the field only after appropriate training
Summary
Since the 1990s many models have been developed to create conceptual and practical frameworks for integrated chronic patient care in the community, including the Chronic Disease Prevention and Management model [1] and the Chronic Care model [2]. Community nursing ( called public healthcare nursing) allows nurses to treat patients within their natural living environment Such services are less expensive than inpatient care, thereby helping to reduce public spending and the burden on the health system [8]. Nurses that provide community health services play key roles in prevention of disease and injury, alleviation of disability, health promotion and medical education. They manage and provide care and follow-up across a broad range of settings [9,10,11]. In this review we aimed to understand if exposure of undergraduate nursing students to various nursing work settings during their studies affects their work setting choices after graduation
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