{"title":"From aspiration to achievements: Exploring the motivational drives behind female graduate nursing students' pursuit of higher education in Ghana","authors":"Merri Iddrisu , Collins Atta Poku , Joyce B.P. Pwavra , Anita O. Yawson , Eva Mensah , Stella Sarpomaa Oppong , Millicent Aarah-Bapuah , Veronica Adwoa Agyare , Lydia Aziato","doi":"10.1016/j.nedt.2025.106580","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The nursing and midwifery professions are predominantly female. In Sub-saharan Africa, especially in Ghana, females have traditionally been perceived as homemakers who do not require higher education to play their roles. This phenomenon perpetuates gender inequality, underutilises talents, and denies women opportunities for personal and professional growth.</div></div><div><h3>Aim</h3><div>This study explored the motivational factors influencing the uptake of higher nurse education among female nurses in a resource-constrained setting.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>An exploratory, descriptive qualitative approach was adopted with purposive sampling method to recruit 20 nurses pursuing a postgraduate programme in nursing from October to November 2022. Inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data.</div></div><div><h3>Result</h3><div>Two main themes and six subthemes were developed from the data. Female graduate students believe the reasons to pursue higher nursing education are attributed to one's workplace, friends and family's demands. Participants pursuing higher education think it will earn them higher-paying jobs. Their primary motivation to pursue higher education was to earn titles like ‘doctor’, ‘the degree nurse’, and ‘the specialist nurse’. Other motivations for some participants include the impact of their higher education, which ranges from workplace promotion to family prestige.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Ghanaian female graduate nursing students' motivation to pursue higher nursing education is threefold: personal gains, corporate gains, and family fame. Educational institutions need to assist these nurses with the requisite knowledge to excel in their areas of work, get the maximum benefit they expect from schooling, and make their families and communities proud as expected.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54704,"journal":{"name":"Nurse Education Today","volume":"147 ","pages":"Article 106580"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nurse Education Today","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691725000152","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
The nursing and midwifery professions are predominantly female. In Sub-saharan Africa, especially in Ghana, females have traditionally been perceived as homemakers who do not require higher education to play their roles. This phenomenon perpetuates gender inequality, underutilises talents, and denies women opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Aim
This study explored the motivational factors influencing the uptake of higher nurse education among female nurses in a resource-constrained setting.
Methods
An exploratory, descriptive qualitative approach was adopted with purposive sampling method to recruit 20 nurses pursuing a postgraduate programme in nursing from October to November 2022. Inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data.
Result
Two main themes and six subthemes were developed from the data. Female graduate students believe the reasons to pursue higher nursing education are attributed to one's workplace, friends and family's demands. Participants pursuing higher education think it will earn them higher-paying jobs. Their primary motivation to pursue higher education was to earn titles like ‘doctor’, ‘the degree nurse’, and ‘the specialist nurse’. Other motivations for some participants include the impact of their higher education, which ranges from workplace promotion to family prestige.
Conclusion
Ghanaian female graduate nursing students' motivation to pursue higher nursing education is threefold: personal gains, corporate gains, and family fame. Educational institutions need to assist these nurses with the requisite knowledge to excel in their areas of work, get the maximum benefit they expect from schooling, and make their families and communities proud as expected.
期刊介绍：
Nurse Education Today is the leading international journal providing a forum for the publication of high quality original research, review and debate in the discussion of nursing, midwifery and interprofessional health care education, publishing papers which contribute to the advancement of educational theory and pedagogy that support the evidence-based practice for educationalists worldwide. The journal stimulates and values critical scholarly debate on issues that have strategic relevance for leaders of health care education.
The journal publishes the highest quality scholarly contributions reflecting the diversity of people, health and education systems worldwide, by publishing research that employs rigorous methodology as well as by publishing papers that highlight the theoretical underpinnings of education and systems globally. The journal will publish papers that show depth, rigour, originality and high standards of presentation, in particular, work that is original, analytical and constructively critical of both previous work and current initiatives.
Authors are invited to submit original research, systematic and scholarly reviews, and critical papers which will stimulate debate on research, policy, theory or philosophy of nursing and related health care education, and which will meet and develop the journal''s high academic and ethical standards.
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