The nursing profession has undergone significant change in recent decades, in terms of the short-term work experiences and long-term career paths of practitioners inside the profession. Both registered nurses and practical nurses (formerly called nursing assistants) are increasingly mobile, changing from traditional modal categories such as a full-time, general duty staff nurse employed in a large general hospital setting, to different forms of employment both inside and outside the nursing profession. In recent years, there has been growing concern and alarm over the increasing exodus of credentialled and highly experienced nursing professionals from their chosen nursing field. In the past,...

This first data analysis chapter provides a statistical overview of the two samples of Ontario nursing professionals on key socio-demographic and employment attributes. This statistical snapshot places all subsequent analyses of the many and varied forms of employment mobility in an appropriate context. To fully appreciate the number, type, and form of employment changes or mobility experienced by registered nurses and practical nurses over the course of their working careers, it is essential to review some of the basic characteristics or attributes of these nursing professionals and their current and previously held jobs. The purpose of this chapter is to...

Employment mobility can take many different forms over the course of working careers, and can have significant implications or consequences for the long-term career experiences of nursing professionals. This chapter provides an overview of the incidence and magnitude of both external and internal forms of mobility or change on different employment dimensions for registered nurses and practical nurses. The set of key employment attributes introduced in the last chapter (position type, employment status, employment place, primary responsibility, along with measures of on-the-job working-time arrangements) are explored in greater detail. This statistical profile serves to introduce each of the principal forms...

Why do nursing professionals leave jobs over the course of their working careers? Evidence presented earlier attests that nursing professionals are very mobile, changing jobs every several years on average. In fact, the vast majority of nursing professionals will have changed jobs at least once during their employment careers. This leads to the question of what reasons, rationales, or motivations are cited by nursing professionals for leaving jobs over time. A full understanding of employment-mobility behaviour must include some assessment of the subjective or mental states of nursing professionals at the time of leaving previous employment positions. Cited reasons for...

The nursing profession has traditionally been regarded as one with limited career advancement opportunities within the field. While it is true that there are fewer promotional opportunities available within the nursing profession compared to other professions, it is certainly possible to move beyond the conventional “general duty/staff registered nurse/practical nurse” designation, to other more specialized forms of nursing or to managerial and administrative-level positions within nursing. Hence, occupational-status mobility is clearly possible inside the nursing profession, although the number of available opportunities for clear upward-status mobility are limited. By examining changes in reported position types between jobs, it is possible...

A basic theme of this empirical investigation is that mobility should be examined along a variety of dimensions, rather than focusing on any single facet or form. External employment mobility is much more than upward or downward changes in occupational status or vertical mobility reviewed in the previous chapter. Rather, there are other critical employment attributes or characteristics that can change significantly from one job to another over the course of working careers. This chapter focuses on other key employment dimensions, looking at patterns of stability and mobility along critical variables of employment status, employment place or setting, as well...

The careers of nursing professionals differ markedly from those of other professionals in terms of the number and duration of periods of unemployment between jobs over time. In many respects, it is easier to move between employment and unemployment and back in the nursing profession compared to other traditional professions which require continual employment to assure career advancement or progression. By comparison, nursing professionals are very likely to experience some significant interruption in employment at some point in their working careers. The first section of this chapter explores the overall incidence and magnitude of career interruptions or unemployment spells, using...

How often do nursing professionals leave the nursing field to find employment outside their direct nursing training and experience? What determinants can contribute to our understanding of why registered nurses and practical nurses leave the nursing profession during their working careers? To what extent can role-exit actions of nursing professionals be reversed (returning from non-nursing jobs back to nursing positions)? This chapter looks at role-exit behaviour among nursing professionals, addressing the likelihood of registered nurses and practical nurses leaving their chosen profession to take on new employment positions that clearly fall outside the nursing field.

The first section provides a...

This study has provided a detailed investigation of the many and varied forms of employment mobility experienced by Ontario nursing professionals. Working with two large, representative survey samples of registered nurses and practical nurses, it was possible to examine many different dimensions of external and internal employment mobility as reported by nursing professionals across all jobs held over the course of their working careers, from the time of completion of basic nursing training until the time of telephone survey interviewing in 1992 and 1993. Through the analysis of survey data, a number of significant trends and patterns emerged which are...