Motivating factors influencing nursing as a career choice : an analysis of domestic and international nursing students’ motivation, self-concepts, and cultural orientation

As Australia’s population grows and ages, too few nurses are entering the profession, and many risk leaving prematurely, having important implications for those giving and receiving care, hospitals, and the Australian community as a whole. One strategy Australian universities have implemented to address the nursing shortfall is to increase international enrolments into undergraduate programs. As international nursing student enrolments continue to grow, nursing education in Australia has increasingly become characterised by an ethnically diverse domestic and international student body. However, it is unclear what effect this could have within the Australian health care system. Drawing on social cognitive career choice theory (SCCT) (Lent, Brown & Hackett, 1994) this study tested the link between nurses’ career choice motivations, cultural orientation and professional self-concept, a known factor influencing job satisfaction and retention. By focusing on all methodological aspects for instrument construction, development and testing, the aims of this study were to: (1) develop psychometrically sound instruments to measure nurses’ motivations to undertake nursing (NMM) and nurses’ professional self-concept (NSCM), and (2) examine how the cultural dimension of individualism interacts with the relations between nurses’ motivations to undertake nursing and professional self-concept. Two psychometrically valid instruments for use with nursing students were developed. In this study Job Rewards emerged as the most important motivating factor in nurses’ career choice. Family influence was least important. Participants generally reported a healthy Professional self-concept across both domains of Care and Competence. Individualism moderated the relationship between Influence of Others and both the Care and Competence self-concepts, magnifying the negative relationship between them. Individualism did not moderate the relations between Status or Job Rewards and the Care or Competence self-concepts. These findings have important theoretical and practice implications. Results offer potentially potent new nursing recruitment and retention strategies for educational providers, especially when increasing international student enrollments is serving as one strategy to increase the output of nursing graduates in a climate of escalating nursing shortages. Career guidance interventions around the importance of self-knowledge, knowledge about the nursing role and an ability to reflect on, and plan around, that knowledge are emphasised. Further research should take the opportunity to conduct longitudinal studies, grounded in theory and with large samples and specific cultural groups. Only then will it be possible to understand how best to target recruitment and predict those individuals most likely to succeed in a nursing career in Australia