IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0357086.html

Willingness of nursing undergraduates to work in long-term care facilities: A qualitative study

Author

Listed:
  • Xiufang Hou
  • Yanglan Wang
  • Fangfang Wang
  • Qiuping Li

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the willingness and attitudes of undergraduate nursing students enrolled in a geriatric nursing minor program toward pursuing careers in long-term care facilities. Methods: A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted. Semi-structured, in-depth individual interviews were conducted with fourteen students minoring in geriatric nursing. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The analysis identified three primary themes: (1) Nascent Interest in Geriatric Care; (2) Perceived Deficiencies in Professional Competence for Geriatric Care; and (3) The “Government-Society-Family” Collaborative Geriatric Care Ecosystem Remains Underdeveloped. Conclusion: While nursing undergraduates recognize strong market demand for geriatric care professionals, their current career preferences favor hospital settings. This inclination is influenced by considerations of the social status associated with long-term care facilities, perceived misalignment between their skills and role requirements, limited career advancement pathways, and high labor intensity in long-term care.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiufang Hou & Yanglan Wang & Fangfang Wang & Qiuping Li, 2026. "Willingness of nursing undergraduates to work in long-term care facilities: A qualitative study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(8), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0357086
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0357086
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357086
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0357086&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0357086?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0357086. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.