Singaporean nursing students' perceptions of a career in community nursing

Background: The ageing population and the changing disease profile have been driving the demand for community nurses. However, few nursing students in Singapore aspire to have a career in community nursing following graduation.

Objectives: To explore undergraduate nursing students' perceptions of a career in community nursing and to identify strategies to promote community nursing among nursing students.

Methods: An exploratory qualitative design was used. Four focus group discussions were conducted with a purposive sample of 24 undergraduate nursing students from a university. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

Findings: Four key themes emerged as follows: 'mid-life career', 'limited career progression', 'a difficult transition' and 'international nurses-dominated workforce'.

Discussion: While most participants rejected a career in community nursing immediately after graduation, they planned to join it at the later stages of their lives to accommodate changing life priorities. Limited career progression and increased difficulty in career transition from community nursing to acute care nursing were identified as deterrent factors in the participants' choices of community nursing as a career. Feelings of marginalization and a lack of role models in community nursing were perceived to be the result of the international nurses-dominated community workforce.

Conclusion: Community nursing remains an underrated career. There is a need to foster an optimistic career outlook and mobility in community nursing to entice nursing students into this career track.

Implications for nursing policy: Strategies to enhance community nursing recruitment should focus on providing more quality and diverse community placement opportunities in various community care settings, implementing a clearly defined career developmental plan to elucidate the role of community nurses, and improving community care and cultural competencies to develop a skilled and diverse community nursing workforce.