Abstract
Untested changes in nursing education in Australia, such as the introduction of double degrees in nursing, necessitate a new research approach to study nursing career pathways. A review of the literature on past and present career choice theories demonstrates these are inadequate to gain an understanding of contemporary nursing students' career choices. With the present worldwide shortage of nurses, an understanding of career choice becomes a critical component of recruitment and retention strategies. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how an ecological system approach based on Bronfenbrenner's theory of human development can be used to understand and examine the influences affecting nursing students' and graduates' career development and career choices. Bronfenbrenner's socioecological model was adapted to propose a new Nursing Career Development Framework as a way of conceptualizing the career development of nursing students undertaking traditional bachelor of nursing and nontraditional double-degree nursing programs. This Framework is then applied to a study of undergraduate nurses' career decision making, using a sequential explanatory mixed method study. The paper demonstrates the relevance of this approach for addressing challenges associated with nursing recruitment, education, and career choice.
Highlights
The overall effectiveness of any healthcare system depends on a viable nursing workforce to provide optimum population health outcomes [1]
Double degrees (DDs), known as joint, dual, or combined degrees are well established in Australia [12,13,14] and are slowly on the rise in Europe [15]
The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how an ecological system approach based on Bronfenbrenner’s [28, 29] “process-person-context-time” (PPCT) theory of human development can be used to understand and examine the influences affecting nursing students’ career development and career choices
Summary
The overall effectiveness of any healthcare system depends on a viable nursing workforce to provide optimum population health outcomes [1]. Limitations identified in the extant literature about nursing students’ and new graduates’ career decisions preclude a more in-depth understanding of the influence of these factors in the contemporary Australian context. Informed approaches are needed, to identify and understand how the career decisions of single- and double-degree nursing students are influenced by a constellation of personal characteristics, experiences, development, and transitions as well as contextual factors such as those mentioned above. The third section illustrates the utility of Bronfenbrenner’s framework through its application to a study of nursing career development and career choices in a sample of single- and double-degree nursing students and graduates in Australia
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