The effect of career counseling provided to nursing students on career indecision and career decision-making competence

The Effect of Career Counseling Provided to Nursing Students on Career Indecision and Career Decision-Making Competence Aim: The aim of this study was to specify the effect of career counseling provided to nursing students on career indecision and career decision-making competence. Material and Method: 350 nursing students, who were studying in the final year of daytime and evening education in Faculty of Nursing of Inonu University in the 2018-2019 academic year, comprised the population of the research which was conducted as an experimental model with a pretest-posttest control group. For the sampling of the research, 70 nursing students were included in the experimental group and 70 nursing students were included in the control group by the simple random sampling method. The research was completed with 120 nursing students divided into the experimental and the control group, each of which consisted of 60 individuals. The Career Group Counseling Program was implemented on nursing students in the experimental group in 5 sessions with 1-week breaks. Three months after all the sessions ended, the Career Group Counseling empowerment session was held for the students in the experimental group. There was no intervention in the control group. The research data were collected via the Socio-Demographic Characteristics Information Form, Career Decision Scale and Career Decision-Making Competence Scale between November 2018 and June 2019. For the evaluation of the data, the descriptive statistics, chi-squared analysis, t-test in dependent groups, t-test in independent groups and Cronbach's Alpha co efficient were used. Findings: According to the posttest, the mean score of the Career Decision Scale of the experimental group was 65.37±12.57, and its mean score of the Career Decision-Making Competence Scale score was 160.19±23.12; the mean score of the Career Decision Scale of the control group was 83.16±12.77 and its mean score of the Career Decision-Making Competence Scale was 148.85±24.74. In the comparison of the posttest mean scores of the experimental and control groups, the difference between the groups was found statistically significant in respect of the mean scores of the Career Decision Scale and Career Decision-Making Competence Scale (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that the career group counseling program provided to nursing students in their final year had an effect on decreasing the career indecision and increasing the career decision-making competence level. It is recommended during the university learning process that nursing students be given career counseling. Keywords: Nursing, career, career counseling, career indecision, career decision-making competence.