Abstract:
Background
Worldwide, the growth and sustainability of the nursing profession depends, to a large extent, on
the ability to recruit and retain the upcoming generation of nursing professionals. Although
nurses and midwives constitute over fifty percent of the health workforce in many countries, the
profession also faces challenges of shortage of nurses. The aim of this study is to explore factors
motivating nursing students towards joining nursing profession. Moreover, little is known about
motivating factors for joining the nursing profession among nursing students in Rwanda.
Methodology
This research used a quantitative approach and non-experimental descriptive cross-sectional
design. The study population was four hundred and seventy eight (478) nursing students.
Probability stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select 273 students who
were included in the study sample. A self-administered questionnaire, adapted with permission
from Prof. Nowak and Alison was used in data collection. Data was analyzed using SPSS
version 16.0. Both descriptive and inferential statistics was also used.
Results
Findings of this study revealed the intrinsic factors that motivate nursing students to join the
nursing profession to be: Nursing as a caring profession, a humanitarian job, attraction to
Nursing since their childhood/adolescence and feeling proud to be a nurse.
About extrinsic factors that influence students to choose the nursing profession were identified
as: Nursing profession guarantees the job security, it is easy to get permanent job, and there are
a lot of job opportunities in Nursing, education advancement, and joined nursing profession for
career diversity.
Conclusion
From the findings, it was revealed that intrinsic factors played more important roles than the
extrinsic ones in motivating students to choose the nursing profession.
