Motivation for nurses undertaking a post-registration qualification in Malaysia.

School of Nursing and Midwifery, Victoria University, Victoria, Australia. Lee.Chiu@vu.edu.au

AIM: To present several key factors that motivated Malaysian registered nurses to undertake a post-registration degree through an Australian university. The overall research study, from which this paper is drawn, looked at the professional learning of Malaysian registered nurses and the subsequent impact on their careers. BACKGROUND: In Malaysia, the demand for a degree for Malaysian nurses provided the impetus for this offshore post-registration nursing programme, developed as a twinning venture between an Australian university and a Malaysian private institution. The degree programme was conducted largely in Malaysia with a 4-week residential block in Australia. METHODS: As this larger research study investigated the graduates' personal perspectives of their experiences of this post-registration degree programme, the case study approach was the appropriate methodological choice. Twelve Malaysian graduate nurses were recruited voluntarily from the first cohort of students who completed the Bachelor of Health Science-Nursing (post-registration) 5 years post graduation. Ethical procedures were observed. The data were collected through individual, semi-structured and focus interviews, which took place in Malaysia and were personally tape-recorded and transcribed by the researcher. FINDINGS: The motivation for formal learning emanated from the participants' personal and professional lives. Within these two domains, four separate but interrelated reasons emerged: work-related stimulation and self-growth; compliance with management requirements; professional advancement and keeping up with the profession; and availability and accessibility. However, in a culture where higher education is highly priced and yet scarce, the programmes' availability and accessibility were ultimate factors.

PMID: 15725276 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]