Modelling analysis of career control sources and critical thinking among nursing undergraduates during the epidemic: a cross-sectional survey study.

Background: One of the goals of nursing education is to facilitate the transition of nursing students to nursing positions on graduation, and career locus of control can assess nursing students' expectations and beliefs about their future careers, while 'critical thinking skill' is listed by the International Organization for Medical Education as one of the most essential core competencies for medical graduates.

Objective: To investigate the distribution of career locus of control among nursing students before and after the COVID-19 epidemic, to explore the association between career locus of control and critical thinking and to analyse the pathways of influence of critical thinking on career locus of control among nursing students.

Design And Method: In this study, a total of 456 current undergraduate nursing students were selected online from Chengdu University in China in December 2022 and March 2024, respectively. A career locus of control scale and a critical thinking disposition inventory-Chinese version were used.

Patient Or Public Involvement: This study was approved by the Department of Social Science and the School of Medicine of Chengdu University. The researchers explained the purpose of the study to the subjects, so as to obtain their voluntary participation, ensure anonymity and confidentiality, and require each subject to read the informed consent form carefully and have the right to refuse to participate. Two surveys were conducted separately in December 2022 (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and March 2024 (during the normal control period of the epidemic) among 227 and 229 undergraduate nursing students, yielding a full response rate of 100%.

Result: There was a correlation between career locus of control and critical thinking, among which career internal control was positively correlated with the score of critical thinking, and low professional efficacy and career opportunities were negatively correlated with the score of critical thinking. Analyticity and inquisitiveness could be used to predict the scores of career internal control, and open-mindedness could be used to predict the scores of critical thinking (β=-0.103). Confidence in reasoning (β=-0.055) could be used to predict the scores of career opportunity. Analyticity and truth-seeking could be used to predict the scores of career external control. The COVID-19 epidemic reduced the career opportunity score by 0.596 points.

Conclusion: Nurse educators should recognise the importance of critical thinking training for nursing students, which enables them to adjust their career locus of control by improving critical thinking and may influence professional expectations, improve self-image within the nursing profession and increase retention of nurses.