[Nursing in the Canary Islands and the academic and professional changes].
OBJECTIVE
To find out the wishes of nurses in the Canary Islands in light of the new academic and professional changes, and to identify whether the sociodemographic variables can influence their decisions.


METHODS
We chose a cross-sectional descriptive study using a questionnaire with 5 questions over a period of three months in 2008.


RESULTS
A total of 1070 nurses responded to the questionnaire. Of these, 91.9% (n=984) wanted to do their degree in nursing, either voluntarily or obliged to by the academic changes, 71.5% (n=765) wanted to do an official Masters degree, compared to 47.7% (n=510) who wanted to or are doing a PhD. As for career changes, 48.8% (n=522) of the sample wabted access through the Nursing Internal Residency EIR program, and 34.8% (n=372) by the "exceptional route".


CONCLUSIONS
All sociodemographic variables appeared to influence nurses in continuing their education, particularly showing that, marital status, children, type of contract and Canary Islands residency influence both the academic route as well as work.
Díaz-González
Candelaria Merced
CM
Complejo Hospitalario, Universitario Insular Materno Infantil, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, España. cmdiazglez@yahoo.es
García-Alvarez
Dolores
D
Bordón-Medina
Carmen Delia
CD
Lobato-Santana
Angel Luís
AL
Suárez-García
María Del Pino
Mdel P
D000328:Adult; D002321:Career Choice; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses; D009729:Nursing / Q000639:trends*; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires