Nursing students’ attitude towards working in rural areas of nepal after graduation

Abstract

Introduction: Shortage of nurses in rural areas is a worldwide problem though vital for a nation to have a sufficient, stable, and qualified nursing workforce at all levels of the health services for effective healthcare service delivery. We aim to evaluate the nursing students' attitudes towards working in rural areas of Nepal after graduation.

Methods: This study used a descriptive, cross-sectional research design to assess the attitude of randomly selected 117 final year Bachelor level nursing students from randomly selected two nursing colleges of Chitwan from 2018/06/01 A.D. to 2018/12/01 A.D. The data was collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire and rating scale. Obtained data were statistically analyzed by using SPSS version 20 and interpreted in terms of descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation, percentage) and inferential statistics (chi-square test and Fisher's Exact Test).

Results: The findings of the study revealed that more than half 64 (54.7%) of the nursing students had a positive attitude towards working in rural areas of Nepal after graduation among which the highest was in community-related characteristics (mean % = 54.25%) and the lowest in career-related characteristics (mean%=48.5%).

Conclusions: Nearly half of the nursing students have a negative attitude towards working in rural areas of Nepal after graduation. Hence, this study provides evidence that all stakeholders, Nepal Nursing Council, Nursing Association of Nepal, and Universities need to put more effort into improving career-related, work-related, and community-related characteristics to prevent unequal human resource distribution nationally and brain drain globally.