Development and psychometric testing of an instrument to compare career choice influences and perceptions of nursing among healthcare students

Employing a serious game intervention to promote adolescent school children's perceptions of nursing and midwifery professions

AIM

To test a serious game intervention about nursing and midwifery perceptions among adolescent school children.

BACKGROUND

Nursing and midwifery professions face challenges in recruitment, with persistent gender stereotypes and a lack of clarity regarding the roles contributing to this issue. This study addresses the need for innovative approaches to reshape perceptions and encourage career exploration in adolescent school children.

DESIGN

Employing a pre/post-test design, this study involved 137 post-primary students aged sixteen or seventeen in the United Kingdom.

METHODS

Data collection occurred between November 2022 to April 2023, involving three post-primary schools. Participants engaged with a digital serious game designed to address misconceptions and promote a more accurate understanding of nursing and midwifery. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, including an adapted version of the Nursing as a Career Choice Questionnaire. Statistical analyses included descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, and independent groups t-tests.

RESULTS

The serious game intervention resulted in statistically significant improvements in students' perceptions across multiple domains. Overall, participants showed higher mean post-test scores (M = 139.57, SD = 15.10) compared to their mean pre-test score (M = 131.06, SD = 14.73) on the questionnaire. The domains of self-efficacy (p < .001), job prospects (p < .001) and social influences (p < .001) exhibited the most substantial positive changes. Female participants showed higher perceptions than males in pre- and post-tests and students from all-girls schools consistently scored higher than those from all-boys and mixed-gender schools.

CONCLUSIONS

A serious game about the nursing and midwifery professions appears to be capable of changing perceptions of self-efficacy and job prospects related to nursing and midwifery professions. The study suggests that a serious game intervention may have the potential to change adolescent perceptions of nursing and midwifery professions which may lead to their considering of these when making future career choices.

Development of a social cognitive career theory scale for measuring the intention to select surgery as a career

Background

Surgeon shortages have emerged as a prominent global issue. Although various studies have explored the factors that influence medical students in choosing surgery as a career, addressing the need for surgeons requires a multifaceted approach. However, there is currently a lack of a theoretically grounded scale to evaluate the effectiveness of surgical career development or policy promotion. Thus, this study aimed to develop a questionnaire for assessing the preference for a surgical career by adopting the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT).

Materials and methods

The study aimed to develop the Social Cognitive Career Theory Scale toward Surgery (SCCTSS) by adopting the framework of SCCT. The questionnaire was created through expert consensus and the content validity index (CVI) calculation. Subsequently, a pilot version of the SCCTSS was administered to 222 medical students in their clinical clerkships, and the collected data underwent item analysis. Additionally, the validation of the SCCTSS by gender was performed.

Results

The SCCTSS comprised 16 items that passed expert panel evaluation, with a CVI >0.8, mean ≥ 3.00, and an interquartile range ≤1. Item analysis demonstrated that the quality of the SCCTSS met the qualifying threshold. Furthermore, the SCCTSS questionnaire effectively validated gender differences in surgical career preference.

Conclusions

We developed an internally consistent and reliable scale and validated it through an expert panel method and feedback from medical students. Further research is required to evaluate the targeted interventions that may assist in recruiting medical students into the field of surgery through the application of the SCCTSS.

Recruiting males to the nursing profession: acceptability testing of the 'Make a Difference with Nursing' intervention for post-primary school students

Background

The nursing profession is facing a worldwide recruitment shortage which could be partially addressed by recruiting more males. However, in many developed countries numbers of male nurses have traditionally been low. To address this issue we developed and tested a post-primary school-based intervention to recruit more males into the nursing profession.

Methods

Participants included thirty-four  female students drawn from an all-girls post-primary school, fifty-one males from an all-boys post-primary school and seven males and fifteen females drawn from a mixed gender post-primary school, all located in Northern Ireland. Participants were all sixteen years of age and were in receipt of careers education. The intervention titled ‘Make a Difference with Nursing’ was co-designed with careers teachers, nurses and post-primary school students. This video based intervention was created to fit within existing career lessons and featured nursing staff and students describing their experiences of the profession. Participants completed the six domains of Nursing as a Career Choice Questionnaire prior to viewing the intervention and again after viewing.

Results

Positive and statistically significant increases in perceptions of the nursing profession were found between pre and post test scores across all six domains. No statistically significant differences in perceptions were found between males and females after watching the intervention. Comparison by school type showed statistically significant differences on the domains of prior healthcare exposure (p = 0.046; 95% CI -0.19 to 3.79) and job prospects (p = 0.005; 95% CI 1.04 to 7.01). Students from the all-girls school rated these more positively than those from the all-boys and mixed-gender schools.

Conclusions

A short video presentation to post-primary school students is capable of changing how they perceive the nursing profession. Students expressed surprise over the variety of professional nursing roles suggesting that many were not well informed about the realities of nursing. Providing tailored resources for use in careers lessons can better educate students and teachers about nursing and provide positive portrayals of male role models in the profession.

Validation of a Questionnaire to Analyze the Expectations of First-Year Nursing Students

AIM

The aim of this study was to design and validate a questionnaire to analyze students' expectations, along with their level of interest and overall satisfaction with their nursing studies.

BACKGROUND

The expectations of students on entering university are closely related to the level of interest that they have in their area of study and their general satisfaction with it. This is certainly a conditioning factor in their learning. In this regard, there are few quantitative instruments that measure the expectations of first-year nursing students.

METHOD

A mixed questionnaire was constructed using items validated in previous studies, along with new items formulated following a review of the literature. The questionnaire was validated with a sample of 339 first-year degree program nursing students.

RESULTS

The scales of expectations and degree of interest showed strong internal consistency (Cronbach's α > .7).

CONCLUSION

The questionnaire to evaluate the expectations and interest of students demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties.

Análise da efetividade do estágio prático internacional de enfermagem em relação ao estágio prático nacional de enfermagem

Resumo Objetivo: Este estudo foi conduzido para avaliar a efetividade do estágio prático internacional de enfermagem quanto à autoeficácia, competência cultural e competência global. Foi utilizada a análise fatorial para avaliar a confiabilidade das medidas do estudo. Métodos: Um método de amostragem intencional foi usado para coletar os dados: os participantes eram estudantes de enfermagem (n=66) do segundo semestre do terceiro ano do curso de graduação. Para a análise fatorial, foram agrupados os resultados obtidos dos grupos controle e experimental (n=132) por meio de um questionário. A pesquisa foi realizada antes e após o estágio prático nacional e internacional de enfermagem para os grupos controle e experimental, respectivamente. O teste t foi utilizado para comparar os dois grupos, e Diferença em Diferenças (DD) foi utilizado para determinar a verdadeira alteração entre antes e depois do estágio. A análise do DD também mostrou que o nível de mudança antes e depois de cada estágio de enfermagem foi significativa entre os grupos controle e experimental. Resultados: A análise fatorial demonstrou que o questionário da pesquisa mensurou com confiabilidade os subconceitos. As diferenças na autoeficácia e na competência cultural entre os dois grupos foram estatisticamente significativas antes e depois do tratamento, mas os resultados de DD não foram significativos. Para a competência global, no entanto, tanto o DD quanto a diferença antes e depois do tratamento entre os dois grupos foram estatisticamente significativos. Conclusão: Apesar de algumas limitações do estudo, o desenho inovador gerou resultados que ajudam a preencher uma grande lacuna no conhecimento de enfermagem. Estudos futuros devem incluir um ensaio clínico randomizado para superar as limitações de viés de amostragem e generalização dos resultados do estudo.

Psychometric evaluation of the Smartphone for Clinical Work Scale to measure nurses' use of smartphones for work purposes

Objective

This study reports the development and psychometric evaluation of the Smartphone for Clinical Work Scale (SCWS) to measure nurses' use of smartphones for work purposes.

Methods

Items were developed based on literature review and a preliminary study. After expert consultations and pilot testing, a 20-item scale was administered in January-June 2017 to 517 staff nurses from 19 tertiary-level general hospitals in Metro Manila, Philippines. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate construct validity. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the predictive validity of SCWS on perceived work productivity.

Results

EFA results show that 15 out of 20 items loaded on five factors: communication with clinicians via call and text, communication with doctors via instant messaging, information seeking, communication with nurses via instant messaging, and communication with patients via call and text. CFA results suggest that the five factors that form SCWS have adequate fit to the data, thus supporting construct validity. SEM results suggest predictive validity since SCWS was positively associated with perceived work productivity.

Conclusions

The 15-item SCWS showed satisfactory psychometric properties for use in future studies. These studies can focus on identifying factors associated with nurses' use of smartphones for work purposes.

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

BACKGROUND

Globally 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.

METHODS

A 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.

RESULTS

Nursing 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.

CONCLUSION

An 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.