Background: In Malaysia the percentage of diploma registered nurses outnumber the percentage of degree registered nurses. Internationally, most registered nurses earn associate degrees or bachelor’s degrees in nursing. Malaysia is in the pipeline of ensuring that its registered nurses are professionally qualified with nursing degree by year 2020. Registered nurses with diploma qualification are feeling the pressure to upgrade their qualification to degree. There are concerns as to why these nurses are not pursuing their post registration nursing degree. Objective: To determine factors that are deterring the registered nurses of a private hospital in Penang from pursuing the post registered nursing degree. Methods: This descriptive study utilised a convenient sample of 150 registered nurses from Lam Wah Ee Hospital in Penang. The instrument of this study was developed based on literature search and the conceptual framework of Force Fields Analysis developed by Kurt Lewin in 1952. Results: The deterring factors for registered nurses not pursuing post registration nursing degree from this hospital were determined through negative mean score, which was valued at less than 2.5. The top 3 deterring factors identified were: high educational cost, with a score of 1.92; financial commitment, with a score of 2.22 and time constraints and high workload, with a score of 2.27. Conclusions: High educational cost, financial commitment, time constraint and high workload were the main factors deterring the registered nurses from this hospital from pursuing their post registration nursing degree. Thus it is timely for the organisational management to consider workable measures to assist and motivate their nurses to upgrade themselves with nursing degree in line with Malaysia’s vision to meet the increasing challenges and complex needs in the care of clients in health services.
Education, Nursing