The findings presented here are the result of a semi-structured interview with 24 nursing students. The interviewees’ genders had an equal distribution: 12 men and 12 women. The minimum age of the interviewees was 21 years, and their maximum age was 37 years. Only one interviewee was married. The interviewees were from 12 Iranian provinces, with 50% from Isfahan Province.
After analyzing the semi-structured interviews, four themes and six sub-themes related to hesitancy among senior undergraduate nursing students to pursue a career in nursing were extracted. The extracted themes included academic idiosyncrasies, individual characteristics, poor nursing market regulations, and the peculiarities of the workplace (Table 1). Each of the extracted themes is explained below.
| Themes | Sub-Themes |
|---|---|
| Theme 1: academic idiosyncrasies | The first theme involved the characteristics of the academic setting experienced by nursing students. The sub-theme was the role of professors. |
| Theme 2: individual characteristics | Some interviewees worried that their individual characteristics may not fit nursing career. Most of the interviewees considered the incompatibility of the nature of nursing duties with their personalities. |
| Theme 3: poor nursing market regulations | The third theme, which was emphasized by most of the interviewees, captures poor nursing market regulations. |
| Theme 4: the peculiarities of the workplace | The final theme was the environmental conditions related to nursing careers. |