a b s t r a c t
This paper explores the values and meaning of the nursing profession utilising a sample of new nursing
graduates just entering the workforce. Nursing practice has shifted over the course of the 20th and 21st
Centuries, with varied and shifting positions on the values and philosophy that underpin it. Reported
here is data from a cohort of Australian and New Zealand nurse graduates (n ¼ 97) who submitted survey
responses to the open-ended question “I love nursing and/or midwifery because …” as part of the webbased Graduate e-Cohort Study (GeS). Data were analysed relying on qualitative content analysis. Five
themes emerged from the complete analysis of the responses. These themes were; self and personal
development, immediate reward (intrinsic work values); meaning making and greater good, mobilities
and momentum (extrinsic work values); and person-centred care (social work value). The findings
suggest that while economic, workplace, organisational and professional influences may have influenced
nursing work, when asked about what they value in nursing, the traditional values emerge as central.
Nursing curricula and nurse educators would do well to promote these values and meanings leading to
the education and recruitment of individuals suited to the work of nursing.
ISSN:
1471-5953
eISSN:
1471-5953
Description:
Nurse Education in Practice enables lecturers and practitioners to both share and disseminate evidence that demonstrates the actual practice of education as it is experienced in the realities of their respective work environments, that is both in the University/faculty and clinical settings. It is supportive of new authors and is at the forefront in publishing individual and collaborative papers that demonstrate the link between education and practice.