Factors deterring dentistry, medical, pharmacy, and social science undergraduates from pursuing nursing as a healthcare career: a cross-sectional study in an Asian university

Abstract

BackgroundGlobally more registered nurses need to be recruited to meet the needs of aging populations and increased co-morbidity. Nursing recruitment remains challenging when compared to other healthcare programs. Despite healthcare students having similar motivation in joining the healthcare industry, many did not consider nursing as a career choice. This study aims to identify the deterrents to choosing nursing among healthcare undergraduates by examining the differences in the factors influencing healthcare career choices and nursing as a career choice.MethodsA cross sectional study was conducted using a 35-parallel items instrument known as Healthcare Career Choice and Nursing Career Choice scale. Six hundred and four (n = 604) first year medical, pharmacy, dentistry and social science students from a university in Singapore completed the survey.ResultsNursing as a career was perceived by healthcare students to be more likely influenced by prior healthcare exposure, the nature of the work, job prospects, and social influences. Lack of autonomous decision making, perceived lower ability to make diagnosis, having to attend to patients’ hygiene needs, engendered stigma, and lack of parental support were identified as deterring factors to choosing nursing as a career.ConclusionAn understanding of the deterrents to choosing nursing as career allows policy makers and educational leaders to focus on recruitment strategies. These include providing more exposure to nurses’ roles in early school years, helping young people to overcome the fear of providing personal hygiene care, promoting nurses’ autonomous nursing practice, addressing gender stigma, and overcoming parental objection.

Factors Influencing MLS Career Choice Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…When comparing the means of the HCC subscales reported by Wu [10] to those among the MLS students in our study, Wu et al [10] were much younger than those in our study but distributed similarly by gender. The Wu [10] study was conducted in Singapore, so the majority of participants were Chinese, whereas our study was conducted in the United States and participants were primarily Caucasian. A number of factors that in uence career choice among MLS students were signi cantly impacted by military experience, but this demographic was not reported in Wu's [10] study.…”

“…Overall, MLS students rate 'personal interest', such as the 'desire to make a difference in someone's life' and 'have a ful lling career', and the 'nature of the work', requiring high, hands-on skills, high among in uencing factors, and are fairly aligned with those of other health profession students [10]. Yet 'social in uence', including social media and perceived public image, were not rated as highly.…”

“…Although there has been extensive research regarding the factors that in uence career choice among students in the health professions, including medicine [10], nursing [11], dentistry [12,13], athletic trainers [14,15], dieticians [16] and others [17][18], the factors that in uence MLS students' career choice have not been previously explored.…”

“…In a follow-up study Wu and colleagues [10] used the HCC and corresponding NCC to identify differences in the two scales among students in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and social science. When comparing the means of the HCC subscales reported by Wu [10] to those among the MLS students in our study, Wu et al [10] were much younger than those in our study but distributed similarly by gender. The Wu [10] study was conducted in Singapore, so the majority of participants were Chinese, whereas our study was conducted in the United States and participants were primarily Caucasian.…”

“…The Wu [10] study was conducted in Singapore, so the majority of participants were Chinese, whereas our study was conducted in the United States and participants were primarily Caucasian. A number of factors that in uence career choice among MLS students were signi cantly impacted by military experience, but this demographic was not reported in Wu's [10] study. It is unclear how these demographic differences may have impacted the subscale comparisons.…”