Career future perceptions and attitudes towards migration of nursing students: A cross-sectional multicenter study

Abstract

BackgroundIt is important to understand the perceptions of career plans and attitudes towards migration of nursing students so that it can be possible to review the education programs in this direction and plan an effective health workforce. AimTo determine nursing students’ career future perceptions and attitudes towards migration. DesignDescriptive and cross-sectional online survey. MethodsThe study was completed with 3053 students from 52 universities located in seven different regions of Turkey who agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected using the “Student Information Form”, “Attitude Scale for Brain Drain (ASBD)” and “Career Futures Inventory (CFI)” with an online questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance and correlation were used to analyze the data. ResultsMean age of the students was 20.29 ± 2.28 and most were females. Students’ mean total scores of ASBD, and CFI were 56.64 ± 12.22 and 91.32 ± 11.71 respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the total mean scores of ASBD and the region of the university where the students studied, gender, being multilingual, desire to work abroad after graduation and experience of participating in student exchange programs and between the total mean scores of CFI and experience of participating in an exchange program. There was a positive and statistically significant relationship between ASBD and CFI total mean scores (p < 0.05). ConclusionNursing students' attitudes towards migration and perceptions of career future were positive and there was a positive relationship between attitudes towards migration and perceptions of career future.