NURSING OUTSIDE HOSPITALS: THE WORKING EXPERIENCE OF COMMUNITY NURSES. EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

The community nursing practice research project reports the results of a mailed questionnaire survey of nurses employed outside hospitals and nursing homes in Victoria in 1985. Two 10 per cent random samples stratified across practice areas were selected from listings of community nurses providing detailed employment information to the Victorian Nursing Council. An 84 per cent response rate was obtained from these listings yielding 689 responses. This paper reports that part of the study relevant to job entry, job satisfaction, job mobility and perceived career options as well as educational preparation.One half of community nurses entered community nursing after five years of hospital experience. The major reasons for choosing employment in community health nursing were its conditions of work, its autonomy and a dissatisfaction with hospital nursing, rather than a specific orientation to community nursing. These can be appreciated in terms of competing demands by the nurse's family life and her sense of growing professional maturity.Job satisfaction was high, with 87 per cent of nurses in the study population being satisfied or very satisfied. Only one quarter considered opportunities for career advancement to exist in their practice area. In the event only one fifth of nurses regarded promotion as important. The high levels of job satisfaction and the low importance attached to promotion are explicable given the nature of female employment and dissatisfaction with hospital nursing. Despite this high level of job satisfaction, one third of nurses believed they would not be nursing in five years time. Less than one third of nurses felt there was adequate opportunity for advancement in their practice area.Fifty per cent of community nurses were aged over 40 (the majority of these are in the maternal and child health and medical clinic groups) and some had the non‐nursing educational standards that would be expected given this age composition. Overall 61 per cent of nurses believed that their basic nursing education was an adequate preparation for community nursing at least at a beginning level. However, a perceived need for preparation beyond a beginning level existed given that 83 per cent perceived regular ongoing in‐service education to be essential. No more than 29 per cent however supported either a post‐basic in‐service course, a Diploma in Community Health Nursing, or a Bachelor degree in Applied Science with a major in Community Health Nursing or other college program as being essential. It was considered that the non‐academic nature of the educational background of the majority of nurses was the principal reason for these findings. It was concluded that planning for future development in community nursing, especially with regard to the appropriate educational preparation and career structure, should recognise the current experiences and expectations of nurses. These, however, are likely to change with the introduction of college‐based nursing. They may also be affected by the current absence of an adequate career structure in most community nursing practice areas.