title: A suitable job?: A qualitative study of becoming a nurse in the context of a globalizing profession in India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research on Indian nurses has focused on their participation as global migrant workers for whom opportunities abroad act as an incentive for many to migrate overseas. However, little is known about the careers of Indian nurses, or the impact of a globalized health care market on nurses who remain and on the profession itself in India.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To explore nurses' accounts of entry into nursing in the context of the globalisation of the nursing profession in India, and the salience of 'migration' for nurses' individual careers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Qualitative interview study (n=56).
  
  
  METHODS
  The study drew on interviews with 56 nurses from six sites in Bangalore, India. These included two government hospitals, two private hospitals, a Christian mission hospital, a private outpatient clinic and two private nursing colleges. Participants were selected purposively to include nurses from Christian and Hindu backgrounds, a range of home States, ages and seniority and to deliberately over-recruit (rare) male nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Interviews covered how and why nurses entered nursing, their training and career paths to date, plans for the future, their experiences of providing nursing care and attitudes towards migration. Data analysis drew on grounded theory methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nursing is traditionally seen as a viable career particularly for women from Christian communities in India, where it has created inter-generational 'nurse families'. In a globalizing India, nursing is becoming a job 'with prospects' transcending traditional caste, class and gender boundaries. Almost all nurses interviewed who intended seeking overseas employment envisaged migration as a short term option to satisfy career objectives - increased knowledge, skills and economic rewards - that could result in long-term professional and social status gains 'back home' in India. For others, migration was not part of their career plan: yet the increases in status that migration possibilities had brought were crucial to framing nursing as a 'suitable job' for a growing number of entrants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The possibility of migration has facilitated collective social mobility for Indian nurses. Migration possibilities were important not only for those who migrate, but for improving the status of nursing in general in India, making it a more attractive career option for a growing range of recruits.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, United Kingdom. Electronic address: sonali.johnson@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Sonali E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH, United Kingdom. Electronic address: judith.green@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Green
authors.affiliation: King's College London, National Nursing Research Unit, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, James Clerk Maxwell Building, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA, United Kingdom. Electronic address: Jill.maben@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maben
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D007194:India; D009729:Nursing; D036301:Qualitative Research
keywords: Careers; Gender; Globalisation; India; Migration; Nurses