[St. Luke's College of Nursing: student's motivation for selecting both nursing program and St. Luke's College for...

In 1989, we published "A Study of Students' Motivation for Selecting a Nursing Program". Now, as the circumstances surrounding nursing education and the social situation are changing, we studied this matter again. The purpose of this survey is a) to find the motive for selecting a nursing program as well as this college, and b) to compare the results with those of the previous study. The questionnaire delineating reasons for selecting a nursing program and St. Luke's College were distributed to the 392 students who entered this college from 1989 to 1995. The response rate was 93.9%. The findings were as follows: 1) Many students selected a nursing program as an occupational choice. Responses noted that "nursing is worth while work", "nursing provide a service to people". They also selected nursing as "a way of life" so that "they would be able to grow" and "be useful to others". These results were almost the same as those of the previous study. 2) In the last two years, students demonstrated a tendency to choose two or three reasons for selecting a nursing program. The number of students who chose the reason "for myself" and "as a study" also increased. 3) "Christianity" was a unique reason for choosing this college. "Good quality of education", "high estimation of graduated", "recommendation of others" were also main reasons. Over the last 13 years, there was no change in motivation for selecting a nursing program. However, students showed a tendency to provide several reasons for choosing nursing. There was an increase in the number of students who were 1) interested in nursing for their own satisfaction and 2) who saw nursing as a intellectual study.