Employment intentions of vocational nursing students toward geriatric care in central China.

چکیده اصلی

BACKGROUND: Global population aging has raised worldwide demand for geriatric care practitioners, including in China. Vocational nursing students are key reserve workforce for geriatric care, yet few enter this sector. Existing studies have explored individual factors shaping geriatric care employment intention, but few examine interactive effects of family support, experiential exposure and personal cognitive factors, or extend Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to Chinese vocational nursing education. PURPOSE: This study explores how family support, practical care experience and personal cognitive variables interact to shape vocational nursing students' intentions to engage in geriatric care. It expands SCCT application and provides empirical evidence for geriatric care workforce recruitment, nursing curriculum design and may offer insights for other regions of China and aging societies internationally. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,537 vocational nursing students in Hunan Province (2024-2025). Questionnaire data were analyzed using binary logistic regression and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) to identify key predictors. Hayes' PROCESS macro was used to test the mediating role of personal factors. RESULTS: Only 53.4% of students reported willingness to work in geriatric care. Family attitudes, prior caregiving experience and personal-factor-related occupational cognitions positively predicted intention, while insufficient curriculum exposure and poor perceived career prospects suppressed it. Personal factors significantly mediated the association between family factors and employment intention, with notable interactive effects across family, experience and cognition-related variables. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight integrating the family-experience-cognition pathway into curriculum optimization and policy interventions. This study enriches SCCT application in Chinese vocational education and offers region specific practical references for strengthening China's geriatric care workforce via talent cultivation and educational reform.

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