Changes in the recruitment pool: the Australian experience

Abstract

This paper examines the changes in the recruitment pool from which we draw nursing students. In New South Wales, the change in venue from hospital to college institutions has significantly accelerated a change which began more than 20 years ago. College programmes attract more males directly from school and less mature age males than hospital programmes. There is a difference in the socioeconomic level of the household from which nursing draws its recruits in hospital and college programmes. College programmes attract more recruits from lower socioeconomic level households than hospital programmes. In New South Wales, this was found to be particularly so for the female group but not for the male group. From the national perspective, where students had the choice to enter either a hospital or higher education programme to attain a nursing qualification, it was found that there was no difference in the socioeconomic level of the household of origin between students who choose to enter a hospital programme which paid a wage while training and students who choose to enter a higher education programme which offered no such financial reward. This finding remained consistent when the study sample was cross-tabulated by state, gender and age group (young vs mature).