From aspiration to achievements: Exploring the motivational drives behind female graduate nursing students' pursuit of higher education in Ghana.

Background: The nursing and midwifery professions are predominantly female. In Sub-saharan Africa, especially in Ghana, females have traditionally been perceived as homemakers who do not require higher education to play their roles. This phenomenon perpetuates gender inequality, underutilises talents, and denies women opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Aim: This study explored the motivational factors influencing the uptake of higher nurse education among female nurses in a resource-constrained setting.

Methods: An exploratory, descriptive qualitative approach was adopted with purposive sampling method to recruit 20 nurses pursuing a postgraduate programme in nursing from October to November 2022. Inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data.

Result: Two main themes and six subthemes were developed from the data. Female graduate students believe the reasons to pursue higher nursing education are attributed to one's workplace, friends and family's demands. Participants pursuing higher education think it will earn them higher-paying jobs. Their primary motivation to pursue higher education was to earn titles like 'doctor', 'the degree nurse', and 'the specialist nurse'. Other motivations for some participants include the impact of their higher education, which ranges from workplace promotion to family prestige.

Conclusion: Ghanaian female graduate nursing students' motivation to pursue higher nursing education is threefold: personal gains, corporate gains, and family fame. Educational institutions need to assist these nurses with the requisite knowledge to excel in their areas of work, get the maximum benefit they expect from schooling, and make their families and communities proud as expected.