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II. BECOMING A NURSE

Information about the causes for girl’s becoming nurses and the influences which lead girls to take up nursing is clearly of importance in a recruiting campaign. An attempt was made to investigate the influences which led the student nurses interviewed to enter the profession and their motives for doing so, and since they had all become nurses within the last four years their answers may be expected to throw some light on this problem.

Informants were asked first: “Why did you take up nursing?” and then: “Was there anything in particular which made you finally decide to do so?” It was found that similar types of answer were given to the two questions. The nurses could not clearly distinguish between their primary motives and the more immediate stimuli which prompted them to make the decision. Thus some gave different answers to the two questions, others gave more than one answer to the first or to the second, and some answered the second question in the same way as they had answered the first.

The two questions have, therefore, been considered together and in Table 7 below, the percentages of nurses giving different answers are shown. The percentages, of course, add to more than 100 as more than one reason could be given by each nurse. The 490 nurses gave altogether 900 reasons.

It is in fact possible to distinguish to some extent between answers which satisfy the first question and the second, that is to say between underlying “reasons” and immediate influences resulting in the decision to become a nurse, and this distinction has been made under the headings “Motives” and “Stimuli” in the table below.

As many as half the nurses said they had always wanted to nurse or had always had an interest in nursing. Thus for at least half those who enter the profession the decision to become a nurse results from a longstanding wish to do so. In the previous inquiry into the attitudes of working women and schoolgirls towards nursing, it was found that 29% of working women and 36% of secondary schoolgirls said that they had at some time of their lives wished to take up nursing. Of the working women who wished to do so, some 60% had been unable to for practical reasons and a smaller proportion had changed their minds about wanting to. It is clear from these results that nursing is a profession with a particular sort of appeal to some people. The majority of young women who begin to earn their living become factory workers, shop - assistants, clerks and typists. If they were asked why they had taken up these jobs it is perhaps doubtful that many of them would say it had always been their ambition to do that sort of work. It would be of interest to mate an inquiry and compare the answers with those given by nurses.

Some other reasons however, for taking up nursing are also of considerable importance. One fifth of the nurses were inspired by the idea of helping humanity, relieving suffering and doing something “really worthwhile”. It is interesting to compare this result with the answers of working women and school- girls to a question - “Considering nursing as a career, what do you think are the main advantages and attractions?”. The type of answer most frequently given was that nursing was “a worthwhile job”, “useful to the community” and that “it is good to be of service”.

It seems from these results that it would be worthwhile to stress this point of view about nursing in publicity calling for more recruits.

Nearly as many gave the answer “Nursing is a career” and this point of view has been emphasised in recent publicity. A “career” is regarded as something more than a mere job, and some examples of answers classified in this way are given below:

“It’s a profession for a life - time. I thought it would be a good career”

“I knew it was a career. It was more than merely a job like I was in before”

“Nursing will leave me with a definite profession after the war”

“I saw many possibilities of interesting and absorbing work after training”

Only 10% of the nurses said they had entered the profession for the rather negative reason that it was better than other jobs they had thought of, or a second choice when it was not possible for them to do the job they most wished to.

Of the immediate factors influencing the student nurses in their decision, the war., including “being called up”, is of great importance and is mentioned by 26%, and a further 11% mentioned the influence of the V. A. D. and War Nursing Services. Girls who might, in the ordinary course of events, have gone into non - essential “peace - time” occupations were drawn into nursing by the special need of the moment. Although the shortage of nurses is not specially a wartime difficulty, that there is a need for nurses is perhaps more obvious in war than in peace and the choice of other occupations is limited in war - time.

Some examples of answers in this group are:

“Other jobs never satisfied me. The war gave me the opportunity I needed. The war - need helped me to persuade my family”

“Because of the war. I felt I wanted to help”

“All the girls in my office were volunteering for something. I thought I ought to as well”

“The war influenced me. I thought girls would be called up and that nursing would suit me better than anything else”

“I would have had to go in for something, and didn’t want munitions. I wanted to do this (nursing) years ago, but mother and dad were against it”

It will be seen from these answers that the two attitudes “wanting to help in the war” and “I would have had to do something because of call - up” cannot be absolutely separated from one another. Girls who had an inclination for nursing were given an opportunity by the war. In peace time it might have been rather a drastic step to give up another job and become a nurse, perhaps in the face of parental opposition. But in wartime such drastic changes are forced on many people, and so wartime conditions, as it were, sanctioned the decision.

Almost as important is the influence of relatives and friends who had themselves become nurses and helped to persuade others to do the same thing.

13% said that contact with sickness at home or visiting friends and relatives who were in hospital had led them to the decision to take up nursing.

The influence of school teachers and others at school is of relatively little importance. In the previous inquiry some comments based on open interviews with thirty headmistresses of secondary schools were made. It appeared from these interviews that although there was little actual discouragement on the part of headmistresses, there was not much positive encouragement of pupils to enter the nursing profession.

The absence of any reference to organised forms of publicity in the answers given above may be noted. In fact, eight of the nurses interviewed mentioned advertisements, films etc. These form 2% of the sample only and their answers are included in the ‘‘miscellaneous” category. The fact that such forms of publicity were not mentioned however, does not suggest that they are not of value. The question asked what it was that made nurses finally decide to take up nursing, and the influence of advertisements, although it might be considerable, could not be expected to be the deciding factor in very many cases.

Analyses of the answers made by nurses in different groups show only small differences. The numbers of nurses interviewed in some groups however, are small and. it is possible that statistically significant differences might have been found had the sample been larger. There cannot however, be any very marked differences.

A slightly higher proportion of nurses aged under 21 than of those aged 21 and over mentioned the influence of friends and relatives in the nursing profession. 29% of the younger nurses and 19% of the older ones gave this answer, the standard error of the difference between these two percentages being 4%, less than half the difference observed, which is, therefore, significant.

14% of older nurses and 6% of younger nurses mentioned the V. A. D. and War Nursing Services, the standard error of the difference being 3%.

Of nurses with secondary and high school education, 5% mentioned love of children as against 1% of those with elementary education giving this answer. (S. E. of difference = 1.5%).

Other analyses, by stage of training, voluntary and municipal hospitals and father’s occupation (in two groups, manual workers and others) showed no differences

The conclusion that may be drawn from this is that motives for becoming a nurse and influences leading to the decision vary very little amongst girls belonging to different groups in the population who have actually become nurses.