Career Expectations Research Articles

Singaporean nursing students' perceptions of a career in community nursing

The ageing population and the changing disease profile have been driving the demand for community nurses. However, few nursing students in Singapore aspire to have a career in community nursing following graduation. To explore undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of a career in community nursing and to identify strategies to promote community nursing among nursing students. An exploratory qualitative design was used. Four focus group discussions were conducted with a purposive sample of 24 undergraduate nursing students from a university. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Four key themes emerged as follows: 'mid-life career', 'limited career progression', 'a difficult transition' and 'international nurses-dominated workforce'. While most participants rejected a career in community nursing immediately after graduation, they planned to join it at the later stages of their lives to accommodate changing life priorities. Limited career progression and increased difficulty in career transition from community nursing to acute care nursing were identified as deterrent factors in the participants' choices of community nursing as a career. Feelings of marginalization and a lack of role models in community nursing were perceived to be the result of the international nurses-dominated community workforce. Community nursing remains an underrated career. There is a need to foster an optimistic career outlook and mobility in community nursing to entice nursing students into this career track. Strategies to enhance community nursing recruitment should focus on providing more quality and diverse community placement opportunities in various community care settings, implementing a clearly defined career developmental plan to elucidate the role of community nurses, and improving community care and cultural competencies to develop a skilled and diverse community nursing workforce.

Training Disparities of Our Future Workforce: A Survey of Trauma Fellowship Candidates

BackgroundTraining in Acute Care Surgery (ACS) is an integral component of general surgery residency and serves as a critical base experience for the added educational qualifications of fellowship. How this training varies between programs is not well characterized. We sought to describe the variation in clinical exposure between residencies in a sample of residents applying to an ACS fellowship. We hypothesized that applicants have significant variations in clinical exposure as well as unique and specific expectations for educational experiences. Materials and methodsWe offered an anonymous 82-question survey focused on residency clinical exposure and self-perceived confidence in key areas of ACS training, as well as fellowship training and career expectations to all applicants interviewed at a single trauma, critical care, and emergency surgery fellowship program. Responses were assessed via absolute numbers and confidence via a 5-point Likert scale; data are reported using descriptive statistics and linear regression models. ResultsForty-two interviewing applicants completed the survey, for a 96% response rate. Applicants reported heterogeneous levels of comfort across most ACS domains. There was good correlation between experience and comfort in most procedural areas. During fellowship training, respondents placed highest priority on operative experience, with 43% rating this as their highest priority, followed by penetrating trauma experience (33%). ConclusionsWe found significant variations in both experience and comfort within key ACS domains among fellowship applicants. Despite training variability, there was good correlation between experience and self-reported comfort. Collaboration between residency and fellowship governing bodies may help address areas of limited exposure before entry into clinical practice.

Understanding the Trauma/Acute Care Surgery Workforce

As the roles of trauma/acute care surgeons continue to evolve, it is imperative that health-care systems adapt to meet workforce needs. Tailoring retention strategies that elicit workforce satisfaction ensure continued coverage that is mutually beneficial to surgeons and health-care systems. We sought to elicit factors related to career characteristics and expectations of the trauma/acute care surgery (ACS) workforce to assist with such future progress. In this study, 1552 Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma members were anonymously surveyed. Data collected included demographics, career expectations, and motivators of trauma/ACS. Four hundred eight (26%) Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma members responded. Respondents were 78 per cent male and had a median age of 47.3 years. Forty-six per cent of surgeons reported earning $351K-$475K and 23 per cent >$475K. At this point in their career, 49 per cent of surgeons felt quality of life was "most important", followed by 31 per cent career ambitions and 13 per cent salary. Prominent career satisfiers were patient care and teaching. Greatest detractors were burnout, bureaucracy, and work environment. Eighty per cent would change jobs in the final 10 years of practice, 31 per cent because of family/retirement, 29 per cent because of professional growth, 24 per cent because of workload, and 7 per cent because of salary. This study could be used to help develop trauma/ACS workforce strategies. This workforce remains mobile into late career; personal happiness and patient ownership overshadow financial rewards, and most prefer a total and shared patient care model compared with no patient ownership. Burnout, bureaucracy, and work environment are dominant detractors of job satisfaction among surveyed trauma/ACS surgeons.

An outreach program with hands-on, physiology-based exercises generates questions about STEM career expectations.

Scientific advocacy and outreach programs are encouraged to increase public understanding of scientific knowledge and generate interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. However, evaluation of these events' effectiveness is difficult and somewhat rare. This study's purpose was to better understand how effective an established physiology-based outreach program was in generating interest in STEM careers, while simultaneously providing information that can be used to increase the effectiveness of future events. We partnered with a private school located in Omaha, Nebraska, where 64-80 students participated in 3 h of physiology-based activities presented by volunteers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The event included a brief presentation of the eye, sensory, heart, and lung systems, followed by hands-on demonstrations and activities. Each session concluded with 15 min of questions and answers (Q&A), where students were encouraged to engage the volunteers in inquiries about what they just learned, career-related questions, or any topic of their choosing. Each Q&A session was audio recorded and evaluated using thematic analysis to identify patterns in the Q&A data. Two major themes of questions were identified: 1) scientific content (animal circulatory systems and how organs are affected by disease or stimulus); and 2) career-related content, including typical day-to-day activities of a scientist and the volunteers' satisfaction with a scientific career. We conclude that hands-on physiology-based learning opportunities are effective in generating short-term interest in STEM content and careers. The results of this study will also facilitate informed modification of event content to better suit student's interests.

Linking organizational career management with Generation Y employees’ organizational identity: The mediating effect of meeting career expectations

ABSTRACTThis study explores the link between organizational career management (OCM) and organizational identity in relation to the mediating effect of career expectation. Data were collected from 476 Generation Y hotel employees and was analyzed using Amos software of structural equation modeling (SEM). Study results suggest organizational career management is a positive predictor of career expectation, and career expectation positively affects organizational identity and career satisfaction. Furthermore, career expectation is a mediator between career management and organizational identity.

Measurement Scale Development and Validation of Female Employees’ Career Expectations in Mainland China

This paper aimed to develop a measurement scale for female hotel employees’ career expectations. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were applied. In-depth interviews were first conducted to collect primary data of career expectation activities, and then the main survey was conducted nationwide to collect representative data. After a series of exploratory factor analysis, two dimensions were extracted, namely career rewards and career development. The results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the measurement items developed were both reliable and valid. Of the two factors of female hotel employees’ career expectations, career rewards was an important factor. Both academic and practical implications were discussed to provide valuable insights for human resource management of hotels in China. The paper concludes with the discussion of limitation and suggestions for future research.

The Influence of Competency, Usage of It and Career Expectation on Internal Auditor’s Effectiveness in Ggovernment Linked Companies (GLCs)

National Audit Department (NAD) had repetitively recommended Federal Ministries/ Departments and Government-Linked Companies (GLCs) through its Auditor-General’s Report on the need to have an effective internal audit function to identify and mitigate weaknesses in their activities. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine factors that influence the effectiveness of the internal auditors especially for those that work in GLCs in Malaysia. It is to determine the internal auditors’ perception toward the effectiveness of internal audit activities, influenced by the individual factors related to the internal auditors themselves. This study also aims to determine the relationship between factors that contribute to the effectiveness. 300 questionnaires were distributed to internal auditors that work in GLCs in Malaysia using convenience sampling method, of which, 124 internal auditors had responded. Several statistical techniques such as the descriptive statistic, correlation and regression analysis were used to analyse the data from the survey. The result of the study showed that there were significant relationships among the factors analysed in this study which are the internal auditors’ competency, usage of information technology (IT) and career expectation. Hence, the effectiveness of internal audit will depend strongly to the attributes of the factors analysed in this study. This study will help organisations especially GLCs in understanding the factors that influence the internal auditors’ effectiveness and taking necessary action to improve their internal audit function. Consequently, the internal audit function could perform better in reporting findings and giving significant recommendations that give impact to the organisations.

Conceptualising routes to employability in higher education: the case of education studies

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to critical understandings of the significance of employability in current debates about the transformation of Higher Education (HE). We express our concerns about the implications of orientating HE to utilitarian demands in the light of a tendency to align discussions about the significance of studying at university with the idea of employability. The research underlying this article explores how the experience of UK university students in the context of education studies programmes shapes their conceptions of employability and their understanding of their subject of study. Ideas developed by Gert Biesta are used as a framework to discuss different forms in which thoughts about employability are articulated. The analysis of data that includes reflections on the experience of placement suggests that tensions between education as training for teachers and education as the possibility for change, point to the emergence of a new form of understanding employability that may have to work the boundary between both. We argue that lessons learnt from the case of education studies can be useful to other subjects and programmes of study that also share an interest in the theoretical study of a discipline or where a narrow career expectation is being challenged by broader possibilities.

What sustains doctoral students’ interest? Comparison of Finnish, UK and Spanish doctoral students’ perceptions

ABSTRACT Interest plays a major role in the doctoral experience. However, previous research has not considered how the national context might influence interest. This study focused on exploring cross-national variation in doctoral students’ experiences by comparing Finnish, UK and Spanish doctoral students’ research interests. Participants (n = 2.426) responded to the Doctoral Experience survey. Spanish students sustained higher levels of researcher and instrumental interest compared to both UK and Finnish students. Finnish students displayed the lowest levels of instrumental interest while UK students combined the lowest level of development interest with the highest level of cynicism. Interest was determinant for experienced exhaustion, cynicism, study satisfaction and reducing risk of abandonment across the three contexts. Results suggest that national differences in labour market, career expectations or programme structure can be powerful enough to overcome the incredible variation that has been proven to exist at the more local levels of doctoral nested contexts.

Missing Women in STEM in China: an Empirical Study from the Viewpoint of Achievement Motivation and Gender Socialization

Although women are increasingly earning degrees in STEM, they remain under-represented in these fields. An empirical study was undertaken to explain the phenomenon of missing women in STEM in China from the viewpoint of achievement motivation and gender socialization, using data from the Third National Survey on the Social Status of Chinese Women. One-way ANOVAs were used to compare the achievement motivation and two stages of gender socialization among the male and female college students in STEM majors in China. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the effects of the two stages of gender socialization on achievement motivation. Results showed that the phenomenon was due to lower achievement motivation of women than that of men in STEM majors. The gender differences were gradually shaped by two stages of gender socialization. In the social construction of gender roles, lower career expectations from parents and gender stereotypes from the culture negatively impacted women’s achievement motivation. In the internalization of gender role expectations, traditional gender role attitudes hindered the advancement of women’s achievement motivation. Therefore, an atmosphere of gender equality should be created in order to stop the outflow of women from the STEM pipeline.

Information technology pathways in education: Interventions with middle school students

Although there continue to be many efforts to increase STEM interest in the younger audience, shortages in the STEM fields continue to exist. In order to combat this shortage, this study sought to implement supplementary hands-on, problem-based learning into the classroom to positively influence teenagers' attitudes regarding STEM and IT through an industry outreach partnership. This study was seeking the implications on students’ career readiness skills as well as gauging career interest towards STEM fields. The study also examined STEM and IT from the educator side to see if educators, with no technology endorsements, had the time and ability to correctly implement the activities. These two items have large implications for future supplementary STEM-IT implementations in the classroom from both the student and educator perspectives. In order to fully capture these two diverse viewpoints, 645 students and their educators were surveyed in a pre-posttest format. One of the most noteworthy findings was the students lack of knowledge regarding IT, including what the acronym meant, technical skills needed and career expectations. Educators also reported an increase in knowledge and appreciation of the real-world, hands-on curricular activities. Again, these results indicate significant finds which could have an impact on implementing supplementary STEM-IT curricula in the middle grades.

Karriereforventninger under glasstaket:

Ingeniørutdanningen utgjør en av de viktigste lederutdanningene i Norge. Tidligere forskning viser at innenfor ingeniøryrket har kvinner lavere sannsynlighet for å få lederstillinger enn sine mannlige kolleger. I denne studien undersøkes kvinnelige og mannlige ingeniørstudenters karriereambisjoner og forventinger til fremtidig karriere. Spørsmålet som tas opp, er om kjønnsforskjellene i lederstillinger kan knyttes til kvinner og menns ambisjoner og fremtidige karriereforventninger. Resultatene viser at kvinnelige studenter har minst like høye karriereambisjoner som sine mannlige medstudenter, men oppgir likevel lavere forventninger om lederansvar. Ulike forklaringer på disse funnene diskuteres, og noe overraskende gir analysene ingen empirisk støtte til de vanligste forklaringene på kjønnsforskjeller i karriereutvikling. Kvinnelige og mannlige studenter har like preferanser og kvinnene har ikke lavere selvtillit enn menn. Videre har omsorg for barn lik betydning for kvinner og menn for utvikling av karriereambisjoner og lederforventinger. Det som derimot synes å forklare kvinners lavere forventinger om lederstillinger, er forestillingen om et glasstak. Studien er basert på en spørreskjemaundersøkelse (StudData) blant ingeniørstudenter i deres siste studiesemester.

New Year’s Resolutions, Career Outlook, and Personality: An Investigation of Library Employees’ Goal Setting Behaviors

Many organizations use goal setting as a professional tool to get employees to achieve gains within the workplace. Many librarians in the United States participate in setting New Year’s resolutions as part of their personal goal-setting behavior. As studies indicate correlations between personal goal-setting behaviors, performance and attitude in professional roles, the researchers posit that learning how library employees set and achieve New Year’s resolutions could provide insight into how organizations can improve employee goal setting. An online survey was conducted in 2016 with 512 respondents. Results showed that respondents who self-reported as ambitious tend to be more successful in achieving their goals. Furthermore, ambitious respondents utilized goal-setting best practices more than less ambitious respondents. Respondents with a less clear sense of purpose in life tended to put in less effort or gave up more often than those with a clearer sense of purpose.

Rescaling the Longitudinal Assessment of Engineering Self-Efficacy V3.0 for Undergraduate Engineering Students

Since its development in 2006, the Longitudinal Assessment of Engineering Self-Efficacy (LAESE) V3.0 instrument with six constructs indicated by 31 items has been a popular tool used in engineering education research in the United States. However, there has been lack of validity and reliability evidence in the literature beyond its initial development, with an indication of multicollinearity between its two engineering self-efficacy constructs. This study aimed to rescale the LAESE V3.0 through factor analyses after a modification of items, providing construct validity evidence for the revised instrument. With data from 997 engineering students at three institutions, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in the Revised LAESE V3.0, consisting of 16 items loading across four factors in a good model fit range: Engineering Self-Efficacy, Engineering Career Expectations, Sense of Belonging, and Coping Self-Efficacy. The nonlinear SEM (structural equation modeling) reliability coefficients for individual factors ranged from .76 to .84, with the overall Omega for the ordinal data of .92, demonstrating acceptable internal consistency reliability.

Parental career expectations: effect on medical students' career attitudes over time.

Motivation to become a doctor has typically been conceived as arising from personal interests. However, it is not uncommon, particularly amongst those from collectivist cultures, for career choice to be motivated by a desire or need to fulfil parent expectations. Whether or not this motivation has longer term effects on the career satisfaction and performance of medical students is unknown. Using three waves of survey data collection, applicants to medical school (n=370) reported parent career expectations, parent career support and physician career values. Those who gained a student place (n=90) reported attitudes to their career at the end of their first year of study. Burnout and intentions regarding practice location were assessed during the fifth and final year of study (n=81). Examination marks in Years 1 and 5 assessed academic performance. Those with more highly educated parents reported more support, but parent support had no relationship with students' academic performance or attitudes to their career. Perceived parent career expectation was higher amongst younger applicants and those from a non-Western background. Expectations had a small positive correlation with applicants' valuing of prestige and a small negative correlation with valuing service. Medical students with high parent expectation at selection had, a year later, more negative attitudes to medicine as a career. Parent expectation had a significant indirect effect on Year-5 burnout. Higher parent expectation was related to lower Year-5 academic grades, but after Year-1 grades were accounted for, this relationship was no longer significant. Medical students who perceive that their parents expect them to choose a prestigious career in line with family or cultural values may be more ambivalent about their career choice once in medical school. They may also be more likely to experience longer term burnout but there was little evidence that they might have lower academic performance.

Workforce: The career aspirations and expectations of ­student ­physician associates in the UK

The NHS five year forward view 1 supports the development of a flexible workforce. Expanding the traditional medical workforce using physician associates (PAs) is increasing in popularity. This study explores the career aspirations and expectations of student PAs from a large PA school in England. Thematic analysis of qualitative data from an online survey examined the personal motivations and career aspirations of student PAs. Finally, we make nine recommendations to enhancing recruitment, retention and development of PAs post qualification. Lessons learnt from this data set are generalisable.

The prospective coping styles of nurses in plastic operation room and its influencing factors

Objective To analyze the prospective coping styles of nurses in operation room of plastic surgery department and its influencing factors. Methods A total of 169 nurses of two tertiary first-class hospitals and two secondary hospitals in Yuncheng city were selected as the research objects by convenient sampling from January 2016 to January 2017, their general data, dispositional hope, occupational expectations, occupational values, occupational maturity and prospective coping styles were analyzed. The influencing factors of prospective coping style were analyzed. Results The quality of hope was (31.78±4.24) points, occupational expectation was (72.41±7.24) points, professional values were (86.63 ± 7.02) points, professional maturity was (94.58 ± 6.25) points, and prospective coping style was (40.64 ± 6.13) points in the nurses in plastic surgery operation room. The results of multivariate linear regression model showed that the longer working time, high professional title, high degree of education, high monthly income, longer working hours in plastic surgery operation room, high hope quality, high career expectation, high occupational values and high career maturity were all the prospective coping styles of nurses in the operation room. Significant factors (P <0.05). Conclusions The nurses in the plastic surgery operation room have a certain prospective coping style, improve the treatment of nurses, set up their active work goals, improve their hope traits, career expectations, occupational values and career maturity, which can significantly enhance the level of prospective coping style. Key words: Nurses; Plastic surgery operation room; Prospective coping styles

Self-efficacy and future career expectations of at-risk adolescents: The contribution of a tutoring program.

Tutoring and mentoring programs may be a promisingintervention to help at-risk children who may be in need of a positive influence in their lives. The purpose of the current study was to examine the contribution of tutoring to at-risk adolescents' self-efficacy and future career expectations. Ninety-eight tutees and 147 college student tutors completed the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children, the Work and Education subscale of the Future Expectations Scale for Adolescents, and a background questionnaire twice: first at the beginning and then toward the end of 8 months of tutoring. Both tutees and tutors reported higher levels of tutees' social and emotional self-efficacy as well as future expectations toward the end of the year. Tutors also reported higher levels of tutee academic self-efficacy. Increased self-efficacy was associated with increased levels of future expectations. Changes in academic and social self-efficacy predicted changes in tutees' future career expectations. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

Efeitos de Expectativas de Futuro no Comprometimento Organizacional e Intenção de Desligamento

Resumo Expectativas constituem parte relevante na vida laboral, mas seus efeitos em outras variáveis de comportamento organizacional continuam pouco explorados. Assim, esta pesquisa testou modelo no qual expectativas de futuro organizacional e de carreira na organização atuavam como antecedentes de comprometimento organizacional afetivo e intenção de desligamento. Profissionais de diversas organizações (n=370) responderam a escalas validadas no Brasil. Expectativas de futuro organizacional relacionaram-se com comprometimento organizacional afetivo e expectativas de carreira na organização. Essa última variável atuou como antecedente de comprometimento organizacional afetivo e intenção de desligamento. O tipo de organização e a orientação para o futuro dos respondentes atuaram como moderadores no modelo. Discute-se, então, a dimensão temporal da dinâmica indivíduo-organização e sua importância para a gestão de pessoas.

Feeling connected: The roles of student-teacher relationships and sense of school belonging on future orientation

The present study examined whether and the extent to which student-teacher relationships (STRs) and sense of school belonging (SSB) fostered students’ educational and career expectations. Data were obtained from 15-year-old Hong Kong students (N = 3, 238) who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) project in 2003. Findings from regression analyses indicated that although STRs and SSB both promoted educational expectations, only the latter predicted higher career expectations. Analyses of a multiple mediator model revealed mediating effects of SSB and educational expectations on the association between STRs and career expectations.