- Title
- Cross professional joint degrees encompassing nursing: a higher education initiative in times of nursing shortages
- Creator
- Hickey, Noelene
- Relation
- International Conference of Education Research and Innovation (ICERi 2010). International Conference of Education Research and Innovation: Conference Proceedings (Madrid, Spain 15-17 November, 2010) p. 3048-3055
- Relation
- http://www.iated.org/iceri2010
- Publisher
- International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED)
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Date
- 2010
- Description
- Introduction: In 2002 at Charles Sturt University a regional Australian university, two innovative cross professional 4 year joint degree programs were commenced to encourage more school leavers into undergraduate nursing programs. In Australia, undergraduate nursing funded places in Universities expanded from 2002 to 2008 to address nursing shortages. The undergraduate joint degrees comprise a Bachelor of Nursing and a Bachelor of Early Childhood Teaching (birth to 5 years); and a Bachelor of Nursing and a Bachelor of Clinical Practice (paramedics). Aim: A study was conducted to gain an understanding of joint degree nursing students’ experiences and their career and location preferences. The aim was to identify the characteristics of these students and expose the reasons why they chose this cross professional joint degree and the factors that influenced their career preferences towards or away from nursing on commencement, during and on completion of their university program then two years post graduate. An additional aim was to highlight the challenges faced by academics involved in teaching in these joint degree programs and the possible impact of these degrees on nursing workforce numbers in the future. Methods: A mixed methods approach encompassing a cross sectional and a longitudinal cohort study gathered information via a semi structured questionnaire from single (77) and joint degree (132) undergraduates and post graduate joint degree (26) nursing students in 2008/9. Additionally, 46 indepth interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the university experiences and career decision making of these students. Academics from the Faculties involved in teaching in these programs were also interviewed. Data was analysed using SPSS and NVivo. Results: The study revealed that school leavers are drawn to joint degrees in nursing and beginning and completing joint degree students’ preferences for nursing as a career were less than 50%. The reasons why types of students’ career preferences change towards or away from nursing during their undergraduate 4 year program or post graduate years are multi factorial and these factors such as the influence of practicum experiences will be presented. Discussion: Joint degrees in nursing are more popular in comparison to joint degrees in other disciplines in Australia and they create career choices for students. However, if large numbers of these students do not choose a nursing career then this is a concerning trend for the Australian nursing profession as they occupy hundreds of undergraduate nursing funded places. The impact of these joint degrees on the students themselves, the Schools of nursing where they are taught, and the future numbers of qualified nurses creates challenges that need to be addressed by the higher education sector and the healthcare sector.
- Subject
- nursing students; joint degrees; career preferences
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/933654
- Identifier
- uon:11682
- Identifier
- ISBN:9788461424399
- Language
- eng
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