title: Speaking with one voice: A study of the values of new nursing graduates and the implications for educators.
abstract: 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 = 97) who submitted survey responses to the open-ended question "I love nursing and/or midwifery because …" as part of the web-based 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.
authors: The University of Queensland, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Herston Campus, Herston Rd, Herston, QLD, 4006, Australia; The University of British Columbia, School of Nursing, Vancouver Campus, 302 6190 Agronomy Rd, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3, Canada; University of Virginia, The University of Virginia School of Nursing, 225 Jeanette Lancaster Way, Charlottesville, VA, 22908, USA. Electronic address: a.tuckett@uq.edu.au.
authors: Anthony
authors: A
authors: Tuckett
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009520:New Zealand; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000523:psychology; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace
keywords: Curriculum; Graduate; Meaning; Nursing; Values