Student impressions of clinical nursing

Informal verbal reports of attitudes of nursing degree students over two years suggested a growing trend of lack of motivation in pursuing a career in nursing upon qualification. In an attempt to discover the reasons for this a small qualitative study was undertaken. Fourteen undergraduate nursing students from years 3 and 4 from a BSc Nursing Sciences (Hons) program were sampled using a volunteer sampling method. The degree program is one of two pre-registration programs, the other being the Diploma course. Audio-taping was used to record the responses of students in two focus groups convened for the purpose of this study. Three main themes: ward culture; mentors; and learning from the negative reflect the students' accounts of the influence of their clinical experiences on their motivation for a nursing career. Students indicated that their interest in nursing as a career was directly affected by their observations of trained nurses and the nurses' attitudes toward them as students.