Equality of employment opportunities for nurses at the point of qualification: An exploratory study
Section snippets
Background
Securing employment after qualification is of utmost importance to newly qualified nurses. That first job is crucial to consolidating knowledge and skills gained in a pre-registration degree or diploma course and to developing confidence and competence as a professional nurse (Clark and Holmes, 2007, Pellico et al., 2009). However, workforce planning is not straightforward and factors such as demographic shifts, international migration, changes in career aspirations for women and the image of
Objectives
The study aimed to explore the relationship between ethnicity and employment at point of qualification within one large city. The objectives were:
- 1.
To describe the characteristics (e.g. age, gender, ethnicity) of the newly qualified nursing workforce completing diploma and degree qualifications at September 2009 (Autumn intake September 2006) and February 2010 (Spring intake February 2007) time points from eight universities within the city.
- 2.
To describe the first post gained after qualification
Methods
The study was an exploratory study using structured questionnaires and secondary analysis of data routinely collected by the universities about students and their progress during their course.
Description of the study sample
The overall number of newly qualified nurses graduating from the eight universities was 1649 and the number present when the researchers introduced the research and invited them to take part was 1047. Eight hundred and four newly qualified nurses agreed to participate, a response rate of 77%, which represents 49% of the population of graduating nursing students. One hundred and forty two completed the second questionnaire at three months post-qualification, a response rate of 18%, which
Discussion
Overall, the study revealed a mixed picture with varied findings about the employment opportunities of newly qualified nurses. On one hand 54% of all newly qualified nurses who participated in the study had successfully obtained a job before graduation; this is 85% of those who had attended a job interview. The majority felt ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ about their employment prospects and ‘prepared’ or ‘well prepared’ for job-seeking activities on the last day of their respective courses.
Conclusions
This study has demonstrated that minority ethnicity does lead to employment disadvantage, both for the individual and for the diversity of the workforce that is dealing with diverse needs in its patient population. This is clearly unsatisfactory although such findings are not unique to health or nursing. This is a much wider problem despite best intentions and the increasing strength of equal opportunity legislation. Underneath there are persistent and difficult issues that universities and NHS
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the support of Trish Morris-Thompson and Rob Smith and the contribution and support of the Readiness for Work Steering Group: Linda Burke, Veronica Corben, Mary Crawford, Alison Crombie, Angela Grainger, Deborah Harris and Jane Sayer. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Fiona Ross and David Sines.
We thank the students and university staff who participated in and helped us with the study.
Conflict of interest. None declared.
Funding. The research team
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