Paths to Integrating the 1+X Certificate System of Elderly Care into the Training of Higher Vocational Nursing Talents

In order to nurture more application-oriented talents for elderly care, this paper integrates the training of higher vocational nursing talents with the 1+X certificate system for elderly care through theoretical analysis. The paper first elaborate the application significance of the 1+X certificate system in the training of higher vocational nursing talents, and then proposes the ways to integrate the 1+X certificate system into the training of higher vocational nursing talents.

Correlation among academic self-efficacy, professional identity, and professional attitude of higher vocational nursing students†

Objective To analyze the influence of professional identity and academic efficacy on the professional attitude of higher vocational nursing students. Methods A total of 656 higher vocational nursing students were investigated with general information questionnaire, academic self-efficacy scale, professional identity scale, and professional attitude scale of nursing students. Results The score of professional attitude of higher vocational nursing students was (106.34 ± 9.86), which is found to be in the upper middle level. The professional attitude of higher vocational nursing students is positively correlated with academic self-efficacy (P < 0.05), and with learning ability self-efficacy (P < 0.01). Professional cognition, professional will, and professional values have a positive predictive effect on the professional attitude of higher vocational nursing students (P < 0.05). Conclusions Academic self-efficacy and professional identity are important predictors of professional attitude. Learning behavior self-efficacy, professional cognition, professional will, and professional values have a significant impact on the establishment of positive professional attitude.

Staying in Place or Moving Forward? Young Women’s Imagined Futures and Aspirations for Mobility in Care Work

This article analyses how the culturally widespread incitements to become aspirational and mobile are negotiated by young women in the vocational nursing education in Finland. Drawing on interviews with final year students, the article examines their imagined futures and asks how lived inequalities shape their aspirations and possibilities of navigating the neoliberalising care labour market that is marked by stark hierarchies and diminishing resources. The paper finds that the participants’ aspirations were characterised by the considerations of whether to remain as a practical nurse or to move forward to higher education. Yet, while some women were able to adopt a strong ethos of moving forward, others were more likely to be seen as fixed in place in auxiliary care work. The article pushes forward the debate on youth aspirations and mobility by unpacking the lived contradictions that shape the aspirations of young women entering the lower end of the care labour market.