Nursing students' expectations and career preferences before clinical placement in mainland China: A qualitative exploration

Aim: To explore nursing students' expectations and career preferences before their clinical placements. Background: Clinical placement is an important adaptation stage through which nursing students become nurses. Nursing students' expectations of clinical placement are not always met. There is a huge demand-supply gap in the nursing labor force and ensuring successful nursing placements could offset this gap.Design: This study adopted a descriptive qualitative design.Methods: Each participant was interviewed in the weeks before the start of their clinical placement. Interviews were semi-structured and audio recorded. Data were analyzed using Clarke and Braun's thematic analysis.Results: This study included 25 students (11 males and 14 females; age 20-21 years), which was sufficient to reach data saturation. We identified 138 codes and six themes emerged: a) expectations of role transition; b) expectations of self-enhancement; c) expectations of teaching styles; d) fears and worries; e) preliminary career preferences; and f) motivating and obstacle factors of engaging in a nursing career.Conclusions: Nursing students had various expectations of their upcoming clinical placements alongside certain worries and fears. More predictive and targeted strategies need to be considered to ensure the success of clinical nursing placements. Further research should explore and verify strategies to meet nursing students' expectations and promote their preference for a nursing career.