Factors affecting nurses' decision to undergo a specialist education and to choose a specialty

AIMS: The aims of the study were to identify factors affecting nurses' decision to undergo specialist education and choose a specialty and to describe differences between specialization areas with different types of care. DESIGN: A descriptive cross‐sectional design. METHODS: A survey was conducted among specialist nurse students in three nursing colleges in Sweden (n = 227). Instruments such as Big Five Inventory and RAND‐36 and items earlier used by Bexelius and Olsson were included. Survey data were analysed by using descriptive and analytical statistics, and for open‐ended question qualitative content analysis was used. RESULTS: Wage benefit during the education was regarded by 47% as an incentive to start studies. Most of the specialist nurse students considered an opportunity for new tasks (75%), new areas of responsibility (75%), intellectual challenges (72%) and higher wages (71%) to be of high importance when choosing a specialty. However, the students in specialization areas with transitory care‐rated challenges regarding the practical skills (84%) and the occurrence of acute events (82%) higher. CONCLUSION: Although higher wages were important to make nurses feel that they will get value from the education, there were also other important aspects, such as opportunity for new tasks, new areas of responsibility and intellectual challenges that influenced nurses' willingness to undergo a specialist education. Our findings provide employers with the useful information to guide and influence nurses' decisions to enter specialist education and their choice of specialist area.