Graduating nurse students’ interest in older people nursing—A cross-sectional survey in six European countries

• Published in: International Journal of Older People Nursing
• Main Author: the ProCompNurse Consortium
• Other Authors: Other departments, Landspitali - The National University Hospital of Iceland
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Menntadeild; Europe; career choice; cross-sectional studies; nursing; older people nursing; self report; students; Geriatric Nursing; Humans; Workplace; Education; Baccalaureate; Finland; Surveys and Questionnaires; Aged; Gerontology; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/3022; https://doi.org/10.1111/opn.12446

Funding Information: The authors thank the GNSs who generously donated their time to participate in the study. The authors also thank all the contact persons of the educational institutions assisting in the arrangement of data collection. This work was supported by the Academy of Finland (Decision 28.4.2017; no. 310145 for the period 9/2017–12/2021). The Academy of Finland had no involvement in the conduct of the research or preparation of the article. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Older People Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. © 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Older People Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. BACKGROUND: Countries vary in the number of qualified nurses employed in older adult services. Moreover, students' views of older people nursing as a career differ internationally. Studying future nurses and their career intentions for the field is warranted to meet the increased nurse workforce expectations in terms of quantity and competence. AIM: To analyse graduating nurse students' interest in older people nursing and the factors associated with it. METHODS: A cross-sectional multicountry survey design was applied. Data were collected between May 2018 and March 2019 from several educational institutions in Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania and Spain. Non-probability convenience sampling was used to recruit graduating nurse students (n = 1796). The data were collected with a structured questionnaire comprising background factors and the Willingness sub-scale (six items) of the Students' Interest in Nursing Older People Scale. Data were analysed using a linear mixed model including relevant background variables. RESULTS: Overall, students' interest in older people nursing was low (score 20.5, on a 0-100 scale). Among the studied countries, Spanish students scored the highest (38.8) and German students the lowest (3.6). Students' interest in older people nursing was associated with country (p < .001), the length of ...