Understanding Career Choice: A Turn to Narrative

Sheri Price RN (PhD Candidate)

Dr. Linda McGillis Hall (PhD Supervisor)

Dr. Jan Angus (Committee Member)

Dr. Elizabeth Peter (Committee Member)

Introduction

Why Study Career Choice?

Why Now?

Background• Nursing Shortage

• Shortfall of 100, 000 Nurses (31%) by 2016 (CNA, 2008)

• Recruitment & Retention• Growing Attrition Rates; Reality & Transition Shock

• Millennial Generation (Born 1980-2000)

• Emerging professional group;

• Distinct Socialization Experiences, Parenting; Job Expectations

• Experiential Knowledge• Nurse; Educator; Mentor

• Recruitment Committees

Nursing• Synthesis of Career Choice & Prof. Socialization

• Meta-Study of Career Choice in Nursing (Price, 2009)

Organizational Psychology• Review of Career Choice Theory (Price, 2008)

Literature Review

• Nursing Literature

• Broad Search terms:

• Career/Occupational/Vocational Choice

• Nurse/Nurses/Nursing

• Professional Socialization/Socialization

• 1990 – Present

• 48 Studies – 23 Qualitative; 25 Quantitative & Mixed

• 4 Themes

Synthesis

Themes

• Idealized and Traditional ViewsCaring; Compassionate; Nurturing

Altruistic Decision

• Career Choices Influences: Self and OthersSelf Concept; Prof. Orientation

Parents; Peers, Role Models

• Gender, Race and Cultural ConsiderationsGender Roles; Diversity; Social Class; Cultural Expectations

• Socialization & ShockIncongruence with Expectations; Dissonance; Distress; Attrition

Career Choice TheoryDevelopmental• Early childhood experiences; family interactions; life-

long socialization experiences; values; gender & class (Ginztberg et al, 1951; Roe, 1956; Gottfredson, 1981, 1996)

Person-environment Fit• Interplay between personality and environment;

values, attitudes, skills and abilities (Holland, 1959; Strong, 1927)

Social-cognitive• Self-efficacy; interplay of individual, social and

environmental influences (Betz et al., 1996; Lent et al., 1994)

Literature Review:Summary

Career Choice is …

• A dynamic processing of life-long influences and experiences

• Influenced by a variety of individual, developmental, social and environmental variables

• Links to professional socialization; transition; retention

Literature Review:Gaps• Contextual understanding of career choice

• Unique phenomenology of individual experience

• Experiences of the emerging Millennial generation:

• Influences on career choice

• Process of career choice

• Consideration for the challenges, complexities and uncertainties of modern society and workplaces

My Story

How did I come to choose Nursing as a Career?

Why did I become a Nurse?

What were the influences on my decision?

NarrativeTheory

"...the self does not know itself immediately, but only indirectly by the detour of the cultural signs of all sorts…. and, among them, the narratives of everyday life."

Paul Ricoeur (1991, p.80)

Narrative as a Theoretical Approach

• Explore human experiences

• Gives meaning to experience

• Means to understanding past life events

• Draws actions & events into unified, meaningful whole

NarrativeMethodology

"...the self does not know itself immediately, but only indirectly by the detour of the cultural signs of all sorts…. and, among them, the narratives of everyday life."

Paul Ricoeur (1991, p.80)

Interpretive Narrative (Polkinghorne, 1997; Beiter, 2007)

• Focus on Narrative Configuration & Emplotment

• 3 stages: Pre-narrative; Emplotment; Reconfiguration

• Interpretation

• Temporality

• Attention to language & personal, social, cultural contexts

PhD Research

Purpose To understand the experience of

choosing Nursing as a career among individuals of the Millennial generation.

Research Questions

• How do participants explain, account for, and make sense of their choice of nursing as a career ?

• How do participants describe personal, social, and organizational influences within their career choice narratives ?

• How do these narratives reflect an understanding, or create images of, nursing as a career; as a profession?

Methodology & MethodsMethodology:

• Interpretive; Narrative (Polkinghorne, 1997; Beiter, 2007)

Sample:

• 10-16 Millennial BScN Students; Pre-entry

• Nursing is preferred Career Choice

Setting:

• Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS

Methods:

• Repeat Interviews; Participant Journals

• Narrative Analysis; Emplotment

Significance

• Insight into early influences on career choice for the Millennial generation.

• Provide an understanding of the career choice process.

• Provide insight into Millennial generation’s perceptions of nursing & career expectations.

• May inform recruitment, education, socialization and retention initiatives

Funding Acknowledgements

• Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

• Canadian Nurses Foundation

• Ontario Graduate Scholarship

• Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (IHSPR)

Questions ?Contact Information:

Sheri PriceDoctoral StudentBloomberg Faculty of NursingUniversity of Torontosheri.price@utoronto.ca

902-489-8809

Thank You