Factors that make the health care professions an attractive career option in East Malaysia

A shortage of health care professionals, particularly nurses, has led to the development of strategies to increase recruitment to these disciplines. This paper describes the findings of a study of factors that attract nurses and related health care professionals to their chosen discipline. A survey design was employed, in which a questionnaire was administered at a research seminar with the intent of demonstrating the conduct of research in real time. Seventy-six health care professionals participated in this survey. Most respondents were female and employed as nurses. The mean age of participants was 39 years. The ability to help others, training being provided and job security were rated highly by respondents as factors attracting them to their profession, along with the ability that to combine work and family commitments. While the findings reported here reflect some similarities with those of earlier studies, the demographically different sample may account for many of the differences.