Changes in Finnish nursing students' nursing orientations between mid 1990s and mid-2000s.

Aims: The main purpose of the study was to identify nursing students' orientations to nursing, their experiences of caring and nursing, the meaning of nursing and the expectations applied to a nursing career, and to report the changes in the orientations between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. Another aim was to determine the extent to which students' age, sex, having children, pre-educational caring experiences and intentions to leave nursing might explain the changes in nursing orientations.

Background: There is a worldwide shortage of nurses but at the same time there is an ever decreasing number of applicants that are entering nursing education.