Understanding Nursing Students' Job Preferences: Insights From a Global Systematic Review With Implications for Healthcare System Recruitment

BACKGROUND: Nursing students are the primary reserve force for hospital nurses. With the shrinking of nurse human resources and the increase in turnover rates, understanding the job preferences of nursing students is crucial for attracting nursing students. AIM: To systematically review published studies on discrete choice experiments involving nursing students. METHODS: Ten databases were systematically searched from their inception to January 15, 2025. Two researchers independently used the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research checklist to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Thematic analysis was used to classify the attributes into broad categories and corresponding subcategories. The frequency, significance, relative importance, and willingness-to-pay of each attribute in the included studies were analyzed. RESULTS: Fifteen studies spanning 12 countries were included, with a total of 102 individual attributes extracted and divided into two broad categories and six subcategories. Non-financial attributes were the most frequently reported broad category. The subgroup analyses indicated that nursing students from high-income countries valued income and were highly concerned about the working atmosphere. LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION: The results of this systematic review provide important evidence for developing incentive policies to attract nursing students to the nursing profession.