METHODS Participants Participants were financial members of the QNU working in the Public (government funded acute and community health nursing), Private (private and not-for-profit funded acute and domiciliary nursing) and Aged Care (both public and privately funded) sectors. Surveys were mailed out in October 2010 to 1250 randomly selected members in each sector and reminders were sent two and four weeks after the initial mail-out to non-respondents. Completed questionnaires were returned directly to the research team. Questionnaire The verified questionnaire had been used in 2001, 2004 and 2007 (Hegney et al, 2006, 2010; Eley et al 2007); however in 2010 four new questions related to career progression were included. Those questions were: How satisfied are you with your career progression opportunities in nursing? Are you contemplating a change within your nursing career in the next 12 months but still will be working in nursing? Are you contemplating leaving nursing career in the next 12 months? Question 1 offered a 5-point Likert scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. Nurses responding very dissatisfied or dissatisfied were requested to provide a free text explanation. For both questions 2 and 3 response was either Yes or No. Yes respondents were asked to explain what the change would be and why? What are the current barriers to career advancement in nursing? Five barriers identified through consultation with the QNU and informed by the literature were offered. A free text box allowed additional barriers to be A fifth question had been asked in all four surveys: The question took the form of a semantic differential rating scale. The opposing statements were prospects are good” and prospects are limited” with a scale “Career “Career from extremely good to extremely limited. Analysis Data from the Public, Private and Aged Care sectors were compared on an item by item basis, using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical tools (PASW Statistics v18). A level of .05% was used to support inferences for Chi-square, ANOVA, Z and t tests. Free text responses were analysed thematically using the framework of Pope et al. (2000). Inter-coder reliability was checked during shared coding sessions to ensure consensus of themes and integrity of coding. The study was approved by the University Human Research and Ethics Committee. FINDINGS The response rate was 36.4% (n=1365) and returns within the sectors were 38.9% Aged Care, 37.2% Private and 33.1% Public.
METHODS Participants Participants were financial members of the QNU working in the Public (government funded acute and community health nursing), Private (private and not-for-profit funded acute and domiciliary nursing) and Aged Care (both public and privately funded) sectors. Surveys were mailed out in October 2010 to 1250 randomly selected members in each sector and reminders were sent two and four weeks after the initial mail-out to non-respondents. Completed questionnaires were returned directly to the research team. Questionnaire The verified questionnaire had been used in 2001, 2004 and 2007 (Hegney et al, 2006, 2010; Eley et al 2007); however in 2010 four new questions related to career progression were included. Those questions were: How satisfied are you with your career progression opportunities in nursing? Are you contemplating a change within your nursing career in the next 12 months but still will be working in nursing? Are you contemplating leaving nursing career in the next 12 months? Question 1 offered a 5-point Likert scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied. Nurses responding very dissatisfied or dissatisfied were requested to provide a free text explanation. For both questions 2 and 3 response was either Yes or No. Yes respondents were asked to explain what the change would be and why? What are the current barriers to career advancement in nursing? Five barriers identified through consultation with the QNU and informed by the literature were offered. A free text box allowed additional barriers to be A fifth question had been asked in all four surveys: The question took the form of a semantic differential rating scale. The opposing statements were “Career prospects are good” and “Career prospects are limited” with a scale from extremely good to extremely limited. Analysis Data from the Public, Private and Aged Care sectors were compared on an item by item basis, using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical tools (PASW Statistics v18). A level of .05% was used to support inferences for Chi-square, ANOVA, Z and t tests. Free text responses were analysed thematically using the framework of Pope et al. (2000). Inter-coder reliability was checked during shared coding sessions to ensure consensus of themes and integrity of coding. The study was approved by the University Human Research and Ethics Committee. FINDINGS The response rate was 36.4% (n=1365) and returns within the sectors were 38.9% Aged Care, 37.2% Private and 33.1% Public.
Career_progression.docx