Nursing Students Reveal What They
Look for in Future Employment
Lisette Hilton

A new survey looks at the characteristics of nursing and other healthcare students enrolled in United States education programs.

Nearly 1,400 full-time, graduate, and other nursing and allied health students responded to a survey revealing important characteristics about how today’s students think, their goals in healthcare, and what they believe is important in their job searches. Ninety-seven percent of respondents were in nursing programs, including 54% in BSN, 11% in MSN, 9% in RN to BSN, 8% in ADN, 3% in RN to MSN, and 1% in LPN to ADN. Only 3% of respondents were from the allied health fields.

Ethnicity: Is It Changing to Reflect Society?

Karen A. Hart, senior vice president, Health Care Division, Bernard Hodes Group, which conducted the survey with CampusRN.com, says one of the survey’s goals was to determine the ethnicity of today’s nursing students and whether or not nursing students mirror practicing nurses, “who are woefully underrepresented in terms of minorities,” she says.

The researchers found that 75% of respondents were Caucasian, 9% African-American, 6% Hispanic, 5% Asian, 1% Native American, and 4% in the “other” category. Hart says that, according to the 2000 Sample Survey, there were about 13% minorities, “so it’s about 12% up — that’s not bad. But still, it just doesn’t jump out at you, [especially] if you look at the [general] population.”

Important Considerations in Choosing a Healthcare Career

Researchers set out to determine if the old premise for choosing a health career — the desire to help people — had changed. Respondents chose among many reasons for entering the profession, including benefits, salary, and stability. Surprisingly, according to Hart, “… the primary reason that the respondents gave us for selecting a career in healthcare was the desire to help people. That’s exactly what it was when I was going to college.”

The reasons that followed were “stable industry with growth,” “something I’ve always wanted to do,” “benefits,” “geographic career choices,” “salary,” “scheduling choices,” “second career,” “family member or friend in the field,” and “parental influence or encouragement.”

Target Healthcare Setting: Acute Care #1

Eighty-four percent of respondents indicated that they would go into acute care after they finished their studies. Long-term care was second, followed by home care and “other.”

Hart thinks that more nurses thought they’d go into long-term care than home care because many nursing programs do not include any kind of home care component. “Normally, what you see when people have practiced for a while, if they want to get out of acute care, they want to go to home care rather than long-term care. So, I think this reflects student nurses’ not knowing what home care involves,” she says.

What Factors Are Important in Student Nurses’ Job Selection?

Researchers gave respondents 18 choices to find out what influenced new nurses most in their job selection processes. Respondents used a rating scale of one through five, with five being the most important. The results showed that respondents almost equally weighted all the choices, meaning, according to Hart, that they look at “everything.” Employer size and “fit” with an organization ranked highest at 2.91, geographic location and salary followed. Access to latest technology and procedures, loan forgiveness and complexity and variety of patients followed and were equally weighted at 2.82. Employee benefits ranked at the bottom of the list — though not by much, at 2.76.

“I wouldn’t write any of these off or thing one was more important than another,” Hart says. “I think what this tells us is they’re not just going to make a rash decision because they are pondering all of these variables when they look at a job.”

Students’ Perception of Healthcare Careers

The researchers asked respondents if their perception of healthcare careers changed when they’d been exposed to the realities of healthcare. “We were trying to see if they had become disappointed at the reality or if it was exactly what they were looking for,” Hart says. “The results were great.”

Sixty-two percent said they felt it was more difficult, complex, or challenging than they thought; 22% now view the career with more respect and appreciation. Less than 10% in each of the following categories noted changes in their career perceptions relating to increased options and variety, more stress, and risk and realities of the career.

Five-Year Goals

More than half (56%) of the respondents said they planned to return to school for an advanced degree within five years after graduating; 38% planned to work at a local facility in staff capacity; 22% planned to get into education or training; 18% wanted to work to become a manager at a local facility; 18% thought they’d go to work out of state; and 14% planned to use their healthcare backgrounds in a related facility.

Hart says the survey gave her a lot of insight into the group, and it should provide employers with the same. “I came away feeling very positive about this group of students,” she says.

Lisette Hilton is a freelance healthcare reporter, specializing in covering local, national, and worldwide news for nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and other allied health professionals.