An Examination of the Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy of Final-Year Nursing Students

Background: One in four newly graduated registered nurses leave their employment positions within the first year. To reduce this attrition, nursing stakeholders could focus on the final year of nursing education because students at this stage make professional career plans, including their practice destination for the graduate year and their commitment to the profession. Previous studies provide evidence of nursing students' career preferences and specialty choices. However, there is a dearth of data that focuses on the students' career decisionmaking process. Aim: This study examined the self-efficacy or confidence of final-year nursing students in making career decisions and the factors that influence their career decision-making process. Setting and participants: Final year pre-registration nursing students (N = 222) at two public universities in Western Australia. Methods: An online survey was used to collect cross-sectional data. The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale - Short Form was used to investigate nursing students' confidence in making career decisions. Career decision-making self-efficacy refers to the confidence to successfully complete career decision-making tasks. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the participants' characteristics. The chi-square test was used to assess the significance of the difference between categorical data, and binary logistic regression was used to determine the odds of the factors that predict career decision self-efficacy. Results: Forty-seven percent of participants who answered all Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale - Short Form questions had good confidence in making career decisions. Factors such as the setting of the final clinical placement, the intention to be employed in the specialisation or organisation of their final placement and the students' assessment of their clinical experience were associated with career decision-making confidence. Conclusions: Most participants had low confidence in making career decisions. This study provides ideas for nursing stakeholders to implement measures to improve students' confidence to make informed career decisions.