In these stories, young nurses described themselves as
talented and determined to go ahead in their career, attributes
not historically attached to nurses [77, 80]. For example, in
theUK[82, page 305], media tend to view“ambition in nurses
as being an undesirable characteristic.” Nursing profession
was not able to provide the career development possibilities
and intellectual challenges that thesewomenwere able togain
by applying to university studies and by starting a new career.
Similar findings have been discussed in other studies. For
example, in a study by Salminen [15], RNs who judged that
they had the potential to carry out more challenging tasks
had a higher intention to leave the profession. Additionally,
Hasselhorn et al. [12] found that former nurses had indicated
“too lowdemands” of nursingwork as one reason to leave the
profession, and former nurses in a Swedish study by Fochsen
et al. [81] stated that a lack of professional opportunities
and restricted professional autonomywere central reasons for
leaving.
Most of