Career Choice Nursing Care: “We Desperately Need More Internships“

Knowledge is power. This claim of the popular old saying is also confirmed in one’s career choice: If you know a lot about job possibilities, you often make a better thought-out choice. Why this choice is rarely made for a job in nursing care has now been researched in a study. The conclusion: The critical moment already happens during career counseling.

01/11/2010

Aylin Schwanke (left) and Jaqueline
Bomball (right); © private

Jaqueline Bomball, Professor of Sociology and Aylin Schwanke, Professor of Oecotrophology, from the Institute for Public Health and Care Research at the University Bremen interviewed 472 students, 82 parents, 267 nursing care apprentices as well as six career counselors in Northern Germany on the image of nursing care. REHACARE.de spoke with the two experts about the lack of information, conscious decisions and a targeted approach.

REHACARE.de: Mrs. Schwanke, Mrs. Bomball, the nationwide introduction of minimum wages in nursing care in Germany has caused a lot of discussions. Once again this career choice was up for debate. What exactly are the causes for the poor image of nursing care?

Aylin Schwanke: Although during our research we determined that jobs in nursing care are unpopular with adolescents, those jobs don’t actually have a poor image. It is rather a case of the students not having an accurate idea about a job in nursing care and them lacking some basic information on this job profile.

REHACARE.de: A career choice is an important and often difficult issue. What kind of role does the adolescent’s environment play?

Jaqueline Bomball: Parents have an essential influence on their children’s career choice. They gladly and gratefully accept concrete suggestions. However, the image parents have about jobs in nursing care is often negatively tainted by the media. And so in turn they also pass this kind of information along to their children.

Schwanke: The other contact persons during a career choice, like the teacher and the career counselor, provide more general information. In particular, career counselors hold off on making precise job recommendations, unless the student’s impulse is clearly headed in one direction, like for instance toward a career in nursing care. This is why it might happen that a student, who never thought or talked about a job in nursing care, might miss out on his/her dream job.

"Future" and "career choice" are only seldom on the schedule in German schools; © Janine Frönd / panthermedia.net

REHACARE.de: Aside from students that are at the stage of having to make a career choice, you also surveyed apprentices in nursing care. How did they end up in their job?

Bomball: You have to distinguish between nursing care jobs in elderly care and jobs in health- and nursing care (HNC). The apprentices in both fields always made a very conscious choice for their respective training to either become an elderly care nurse or work in HNC.

REHACARE.de: A conscious decision like this requires specific knowledge about the career field.

Bomball: That’s correct. This knowledge often stems from the fact that many apprentices in one way or another gained practical experience in nursing care, for example during civilian service, internships or in their own family. They already had a concrete idea and a precise image about the job they aimed for.

REHACARE.de: What does this look like?

Bomball: The apprentices we surveyed indicated that elderly care for instance is very oriented toward a human being and socially very important. They view their profession as very fulfilling, challenging and recession proof.

Schwanke: In the case of the apprentices in HNC we noticed that apart from similar reasons as those mentioned for the elderly care profession, they particularly emphasised the available options for continuing training and specialisation.

REHACARE.de: To motivate more adolescents to choose a career in nursing care, you suggest an “image campaign“ for this career field. What should this entail?

Bomball: The most important issue is to provide target-group oriented informative literature. There should also be information folders for teachers, parents and career counselors and folders that were especially developed for students during their career choice.

A smiling nurse in white is not the
best cover picture for the
brochures; © Erwin Wodicka /
panthermedia.net

REHACARE.de: Exactly what should this material for students look like?

Schwanke: The brochure’s cover picture has to appeal to boys as well as girls. Technical jobs are still among the most popular jobs as a career choice for boys. This is why you need to emphasise this aspect more strongly for them to get them excited about nursing care. You could highlight the computer based patient care documentation for example. A nurse in white with a patient is hardly able to motivate either boys or girls to choose nursing care.

REHACARE.de: But simply using the right pictures won’t do it.

Schwanke: No, of course not. The material needs to comprehensibly inform them about the different aspects of this profession. Students should be able to seriously ask themselves: Could this be the job for me?

REHACARE.de: What other points are important for your campaign?

Schwanke: Experience has shown that internships are a great way to gain first insights. Afterward the decision is usually much easier. This is why we desperately need more internships.

Bomball: It is very important though that we are talking about guided internships here. For those to be effective for the apprentices, such internships must be supervised by a qualified person.

REHACARE.de: Why do you think your suggestions will bring success?

Schwanke: Our recommendations are very clear and precise, so they can be implemented without major complications. The Northern German Center for Care Development commissioned our study. Now it’s up to representatives from politics and society to implement changes. The most beautiful thing would be if all parties would sit at a table together and jointly work over the entire material. The implementation should take place on a nationwide level.

Bomball: Of course even then it does not provide any guarantees. You should actually start the process much earlier. The notion that young and old live together and are there for each another has apparently gotten lost over time, yet it used to be the most natural thing in the world. We should try to get back to that.

This interview was conducted by Nadine Lormis and translated by Elena O'Meara.
REHACARE.de