Abstract
Muslim majority societies' religious perspective towards nursing as a predominantly female profession has been suggested as one possible reason behind the nursing shortage and problems of retention. A literature review indicated that no research has been directed toward student nurses' pre-registration experiences in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore this study looked at the experiences of Saudi student nurses to explore the extent to which student nurses' experiences during pre-registration education impacted on their decision to choose nursing as a future career following exposure in the clinical environment. An ethnographic and interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted. Purposeful sampling was used to include Saudi and non-Saudi, 32 female and four male participants. Multi-method approach was adopted to collect data over a 12 month period which included face-to-face semi-structured interviews, participant observation, structured telephone interview and documentary analysis. Thematic analysis based on Van Manen's (1997) six research activities was used to analyse data. NVivo (2.0) computer software was utilized to organize, reduce, and inter-relate different data sets to synthesize into a picture of student nurses' experiences. Data and methods triangulation were used to ensure the trustworthiness of the findings. Analysis identified student nurses' feelings over three timeframes: feelings or perceptions during pre- clinical, clinical and post-clinical exposure. The study contributes to the body of knowledge about student nurses' experiences in Saudi Arabia and contributes towards an understanding of how social-cultural aspects and the role of gender impact on student nurses' feelings of nursing as a future career. Findings centre on the nursing stereotypes which remain dominant in Saudi society and socialization within the healthcare environment. These stereotypes and socialization processes allow Saudi society to view nurses from the perspective of their gendered roles which are grounded in the traditional culture of the Islamic world which influence student nurses' socialization in clinical nursing; These factors cause a high level of anxiety that affect student nurses' perceptions of nursing as a future career. The study raises questions about the role of nurse education in resolving student nurses' difficulties in the clinical setting in relation to the nurse's role and its approach to Saudi society as a means to change the public view of Saudi nursing.