Expectations for professional realization of students enrolled in the nurse program

Abstract

Introduction: In recent years, in the field of health care in recent years there is a shortage of various health care professionals, including nurses. The topic of the professional realization of nurses has acquired another meaning. On one hand, there is a considerable need for highly qualified staff to meet the needs of the health system and on the other, a need to increase the autonomy and prestige of nurses guaranteeing professional satisfaction.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore expectations for professional development among students enrolled in the Nurse program at the Medical University of Varna.

Materials and Methods: An anonymus questionnaire was developed for the purpose of our study which involved 85 students from 2nd, 3rd and 4th year, enrolled in the Nurse program of the Medical University of Varna. It covered the period from May to June 2016. A comparative and variance analysis were used. The data were processed with statistical program SPSS v.20.

Results and Discussion: The main reason for choosing the Nurse program was a good opportunity for professional development (56.60%). The key areas that stood out are: surgery; resuscitation, anesthesiology and intensive therapy with a total of 35.70%. About 42.40 percent of the respondents` preferred structure was a hospital. An interesting result was that 64.80% of respondents indicated that their expectations for career development have changed over the study period, while 54.10% said they would seek such opportunities overseas. Less than half (43.50 %) оf the respondents indicated that they wish to continue their studies in a Master‘s program. Among the first choices for Master`s programs are: Health Management, Management of Health Care, Pharmaceutical Management, Public Health.

Conclusion: The results of our study show that the trend for professional realization abroad is leading. Intensive care and surgical units still attract the interest of future nurses, but unfortunately there are units where it is far too weak. This in turn will gradually lead to a significant outflow of young health care professionals in some areas of the health care system, which will require searching for new ways to motivate staff to work in them.