Lived Experiences in the Pursuit of Graduate Education: Basis for the Development of a Motivational Orientations Tool for Nurses

Abstract

Nursing is a profession which is increasingly developing its own research and body of literature. However, only those nurses who pursue graduate studies gain the research and advanced critical thinking skills. This paper aims to develop a tool of exploration from the lived experiences of nurses pursuing graduate education on motivational orientations. This exploratory sequential mixed-method constructs through individual in-depth interview. In the phase one of the study, ten participants whom saturated the data revealed their perceptions and illuminated six essential themes using Colaizzi’s methodology: Environmental factors, Intrinsic factor, Professional inclination, Proficiency, Advantages of graduate students, and Fidelity to service. The findings assisted the development of a 13-item Motivational Orientations Tool for Nurses which was validated by three doctoral-prepared and 30 registered nurses who were selected as respondents for the phase two of the study. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was utilized to test the validity of the items and determined the scale’s internal consistency reliability and found to be 0.85 for the overall items in the scale that made it reliable. This tool can assess the motivational orientations of nurses who desire to pursue graduate education by giving prime importance in flexibility of schedules and offering of financial and moral supports.