Reasons behind Nursing as Career Choice - Dissertation Example

From this dissertation it is clear that recruiting general nurses, especially in the United States and Europe, has undergone considerable decline over the years. Such possible loss of entrants to the profession of nursing, along with the increased rates of attrition, has brought about issues among stakeholders such as occurrences wherein the supply of nurses is insufficient for meeting health demands. The increasing life expectancy along with the rising number of patients who are experiencing acute and chronic health conditions emphasize the need for an increase in nursing staff members.

However, certain issues have been identified in human resources. According to reports, there have been challenges in nurse recruitment and the filling up of nursing positions at hospitals. For instance, in 2000, there was a shortage of an estimate of 110,700 registered nurses as reported by the Ministry of Health in the US. In addition, it was reported by Buerhaus, Staiger, and Auerbach that the shortfall of registered nurses in the country is likely to reach up to 500,000 by the year 2025. Other countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, have experienced nurse shortages as well.

Numerous studies, such as that of Grainger and Bolan have explored the significance of recruiting nursing students as well as the need to address the issues that come with such procedure. Therefore, it has been asserted that a more thorough and organised procedure for selection can help recruit motivated students and reduce the possibilities for nursing students to not continue with a nursing career. For effective recruitment to be carried out, there is a need to look into the reasons as to why individuals prefer nursing as their career; furthermore, the factors that influence such reasons should be identified as well (Brodie et al., 2004). Such information can not only provide guidance to the content recruitment campaigns and improve their reliability; knowing such reasons may also have a positive impact on the rates of attrition from nursing programs which can consequently present implications for workforce planning (Seago et al., 2006). It has appeared that the society and the media have had significant influence on individuals selecting nursing as their career choice as well as on the recruitment of students to the nursing profession.

A number of studies have suggested that applicants have been interested in the positive reputation of a nursing career (Rheaume, Woodside, Gautreau, and Di Tommaso, 2003). On