Anastasopoulou Panagiota
Background: The professional course and employment of nurse graduates in Greece and their absorption by the NHS represent a major issue, in the creation of which contemporary social, economic, political and demographic circumstances contribute. The stratification in nursing education, the increasing number of graduates, in conjunction with the decreasing job opportunities, as well as the dissatisfaction in the undergraded working conditions create an adverse working environment in Nursing in our country. The aforementioned factors, in addition to the continuing nursing education, regarding the effectiveness of nursing care and its relation to personal and professional growth of nurses, are considered of particular significance. The purpose of the present pilot study was to investigate the professional course and employment, as well as the continuing nursing education of the graduates of the Nursing Department AÃ?ŽÃ?â?? of the Technological Educational Institute of Athens. Material-Method: From a sample of 200 graduates from the Nursing Department AÃ?ŽÃ?â?? of Technological Educational Institute of Athens, 89 graduates participated in the research eventually. Data collection was held by the use of a specially designed questionnaire in the form of electronic document Google Docs, which was sent to graduates via e-mail. Data analysis was performed with the statistical package SPSS (Version 20). Results: From the 89 study participants, 85% are women and 15% are men. The majority of the graduates hold “very good” and “excellent” degree grade. 26% of all graduates pursue postgraduate studies in Greece and abroad and around 80% of them follow postgraduate studies related to Nursing. 76% of all graduates are employed as salaried employees (84% full-time job and 16% part-time job), of which approximately 70% in a field related to their studies. In general, the employed graduates of the faculty are partly satisfied with the working conditions-environment and little to very satisfied with their salary rate. Finally, the majority of the employed graduates have salary from 700 to 1,000 euro. Conclusions: The rate of the unemployed graduates in the profession of Nursing does not outnumber the rate of the working one in this field. The majority of the graduates do not attend postgraduate studies in Nursing. However, many graduates choose to follow various training programs as a method of continuing education.
