The career choices of final year nursing students in the United Kingdom: a qualitative study.

Aim: The aim of this study is to explore the career choices of final year under-graduate nursing students in the United Kingdom. Background: Worldwide there is a decreasing number of nurses and in the United Kingdom there is a decreasing amount of nursing students. There is sparce evidence relating to the career's choices of nursing students and reasons for those choices. Obtaining a deeper comprehension of these choices may aid healthcare employers, in partnership with universities, to design the future nursing workforce. Design: A qualitative design was used. Methods: Twenty-one final year under-graduate nursing students from across a range of universities volunteered to attend online focus groups to share their experiences of career choices. Results: The themes which emerged were: ‘choosing an employer’; ‘job searches and applications’; ‘should I stay or should I go’; ‘choosing a specialty’ and ‘an alternative career.’ Conclusions: The findings from this study provide reasons and rationales for careers choices of nursing which may aid healthcare employers in partnership with universities to plan their nursing recruitment and retention strategies.