This article examines the lived experience of choosing professional nursing as a career and explores the effect of public perception of nursing on this choice in order to inform effective recruitment and retention strategies. This was done using a feminist phenomenological approach.
The results showed that for these participants, the choice of nursing as a career bespoke a passion that had been affected but not yet eclipsed by conflict, compromised fulfilment and the internalization of nursing and gendered stereotypes directly influenced by the image of nursing.
Five themes emerged from the data: Up-close and personal/exposure and connection, The image of nursing, The conflict inherent in nursing, Recruitment, and Retention and the work environment.
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