Professional plans of nursing students

Abstract

In 2007-2008 academic year anonymous surveys were conducted among 309 students of two Polish higher education institutions (Medical University of Lublin and State School of Higher Vocational Education in Ciechanów). The students of the 1^st and 3^rd year participated in the surveys. Most students associated the development of their professional career with obtaining second degree education (86.41% respondents wanted to continue their education in the form of master’s studies). The majority of the surveyed planned to start a job at Polish healthcare centres. The main reason for working in Poland is the unwillingness to leave the country (36.9%) as well as the hope for an improvement of the situation of the Polish healthcare (30.7%). Working abroad was chosen by 21.36% (of which the students from Lublin were the majority, i.e. 22.68%, as compared to the students from Ciechanów -11.30). The obtained results demonstrate that the type of higher education institution was not a differentiating factor of the students’ professional plans. The survey shows that for 6.47% of the researched group going abroad would entail staying in the country permanently, for 14.89% - for an indefinite period of time.