Male student nurses need more support: Understanding the determinants and consequences of career adaptability in...

To better understand nursing students' high attrition rates, especially for male student nurses, it is important to understand their academic satisfaction and compare it based on gender.

To examine the relationships between proactive personality, core self- evaluations, types of support (emotional/instrumental/informational support), career adaptability, and academic satisfaction in nursing college students using the career construction theory.

This study uses a cross-sectional design.

1062 students recruited from one health vocational college in northwest China completed questionnaires measuring proactive personality, core self-evaluations, emotional/instrumental/informational support, career adaptability, and academic satisfaction. Data was analyzed by structural equation modeling, and mediation and moderation analyses were performed.

Proactive personality (Beta = 0.24, p < 0.001), core self-evaluations (Beta = 0.31, p < 0.001) and informational support (Beta = 0.21, p < 0.001) were positively correlated with career adaptability, and career adaptability was positively (Beta = 0.43, p < 0.001) associated with academic satisfaction. Career adaptability mediates the relationships between proactive personality, core self-evaluations, informational support and academic satisfaction. For male student nurses, emotional support (Beta = 0.31, p < 0.01) has a positive association with career adaptability.

In nursing students, personal features (e.g., proactive personality, core self-evaluations) and supporting materials (e.g., informational support) have a positive association with career adaptability, and career adaptability has a mediating role in the relationships. Male student nurses need extra emotional support to promote their academic satisfaction. Targeted interventions may improve nursing college students' academic satisfaction.