Enhancing nursing as a career choice with fifth-grade students

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of a career education program on children's interest in nursing as a career choice, especially related to gender in fifth-grade students. A within-subjects design compared interest in nursing as a career of 70 fifth-grade students before and after participation in a 4-week career education program about nursing. There was a 61% (N = 70, p < 0.001) increase of students expressing they would consider nursing as a career after participating in the career education program. This positive effect was discovered among both male and female students. Further results provided a pre and post-career assessment of the students' development that was congruent with findings from previous vocational studies. The results underscore the positive effect career education can have on children's career interests and substantiate the importance of exposing students to practicing nurses as a key strategy to stimulate interest in nursing to help maintain a steady recruitment of young people into the future nursing workforce.