Abstract
In Aotearoa New Zealand, fewer than two percent of graduating nurses identify aged care as a preferred employment option. Influences contributing to this statistic are multifactorial, ranging from societal norms and values, to health, education and economic policies. In this article, we argue that undergraduate nurse education is a contributor to this issue by constructing working in aged care as having lower status or less value than working in other health care areas. Foucauldian discourse analysis permitted us to examine this issue by exploring the dominant discourses being deployed in relation to clinical experience in aged care. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 senior academic staff members from Aotearoa New Zealand tertiary institutions. Interview data were analysed and revealed how a ‘nurse education discourse’ and a ‘work ready discourse’, were shaping perceptions of aged care as a clinical experience in a variety of ways. These two discourses constructed aged care either: as a convenient learning space for developing foundation skills, or as a learning space to access only when other more desirable spaces were unavailable. Aged care was also promoted as a place of employment for the less able nursing student on graduation. Findings suggest that how and why aged care is utilised as a space to learn a range of nursing skills has the unintended effect of devaluing and discouraging employment in aged care settings. This article argues there is a collective need to go beyond curricula and uncover what is actually conveyed through the educational process to students about working in aged care.