The effect of a career activity on the students' perception of the nursing profession and their career plan: A single-group experimental study

Background: Students' conceptualizations of nursing and their reasons for choosing the profession motivate them and affect their education, work performance and career plans. Nursing educators should support them to plan their careers consciously during their education. Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the effect of career-planning event for nursing students on their conceptualizations of the nursing profession and their career plans. Design: The study was as single-group experimental study using a pre-test and post-test. Settings: The career-planning event was held in the conference hall of the university involved in the current study, and was open to the all students of the nursing school. Participants: The sample of the study consisted of 105 students who participated in the Nursing Career Symposium held on 27 March 2015. Methods At the event, the importance of career planning and the opportunities of the nursing profession was presented. The data were collected using a questionnaire consisted of two sections including descriptive characteristics and the opinions of the students regarding their career plans and Perception of Nursing Profession Scale. The students completed the first section of the questionnaire before the career event began and the second section of the questionnaire and scale both before and after the event. Results: The participants had positive conceptualizations of the profession. Following a career event, the participants' opinions of professional qualities and professional status as measured through the Perception of Nursing Profession Scale showed a significant increase, and that the event had made an important contribution to their career plans. Conclusions: In the light of these results, it is possible to suggest that such events have an important place during education in that they introduce the nursing profession, and they develop the students' positive thoughts regarding the profession in terms of both course content and teaching methodology. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.