The training and job decisions of nurses: An integrated approach using panel surveys and dynamic discrete choice experiments
Key objective:
To develop models that describe the training and job decisions of nurses and to identify factors which reduce retention in nursing so that health system and health workplace reform can be designed from a robust evidence base
Nursing shortages are already common in Australia, Europe and North America, and affect not only the capacity to keep health facilities open, but also the quality of care provided. This project analyses the factors that influence the recruitment and retention of nurses in educational programs and the workforce, and generally in their career choices. It investigates aspects of job satisfaction and stress, and how these change with on the job experience and lifestyle.
This longitudinal study is recruiting nursing students from three universities and will follow them for five years. Nursing students and graduates are being recruited from the University Of Technology Sydney and the University of New England. Recruitment commenced in 2008 and will continue until the end of 2012.
Participants are asked to complete annual online surveys containing two parts: a questionnaire about their actual experiences, decisions and level of satisfaction, and a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to elicit their preferences for jobs with different characteristics. The first wave of data collection commenced in late 2009 and is on-going; the second wave is now underway.
The data will be used to model the nurses’ preferences, including how they trade-off various job characteristics and how these trade-offs change over time in response to their actual experiences. Analysis of the Wave 1 data collected in the first year of data collection is almost complete; some results have been presented at conferences and several papers will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals in 2011.
Funding source
ARC Discovery Grant
CHERE staff
Jane Hall, Patsy Kenny
Collaborators
Denise Doiron1, Deborah Street2, Kathleen Kilstoff3,Glenda Parmenter5
1. School of Economics, UNSW
2. School of Mathematical Sciences, UTS
3. Faculty of Nursing Midwifery & Health, UTS
5. School of Health University of New England
