Career paths of graduates of a degree‐linked nursing course*

Abstract

The aim of this study was to follow the career development of all 103 former students of the BSc (Hons) degree in human biology at the University of Surrey who also took the nursing option leading to qualification as SRN, at St George's School of Nursing, London. These individuals qualified between 1970 and 1980. A postal questionnaire was used and a 97% response was obtained. The employment of each respondent was recorded at various time intervals after qualification and categorized to facilitate analysis. Findings were generally in accordance with the preliminary findings of the Universities of Manchester and Edinburgh follow-up studies. The majority of respondents chose and followed careers in nursing. The most common categories of employment for the first 5 years after qualification were hospital and community nursing. Sixty-two percent had taken further training in various fields of nursing. A larger proportion of human biologist nurse graduates had selected careers in community nursing, nursing research and nursing education than had Edinburgh nurse graduates. There was support for the suggestion that nurse graduates choose to consolidate their experience before breaking their career on account of motherhood. Between 9 and 31% were in non-nursing employment during the first 5 years of employment. Most of these were studying or working in health related fields. This figure was higher than that found in Edinburgh and reflects the nature of the degree-linked human biology/nursing option course.