ABSTRACT
Purpose@#The purpose of this study was to systematically review and conduct meta-analysis on factors affecting career preparation behavior of Korean nursing students. @*Methods@#Related articles published in Korean and English were collected based on search terms and converted into a numerical database. Data extraction, quality assessment and analysis including a systematic review and meta-analysis were completed. @*Results@#The review included 27 studies. There were 25 factors influencing career preparation behavior of Korean nursing students. Factors were categorized into four sub-factors: personal, contextual, cognitive-emotional, and goal-related. In the meta-analysis of 27 articles the total effect size (ESr) was .34. The effect sizes of the four sub-factors were .37 for individual factors, .25 for situation factors, .34 for cognitive and emotional factors, and .41 for target factors. The main factors were .53 for career-related efficacy, .43 for self-leadership, and .43 for career decision level. @*Conclusion@#Nursing students with high career-related efficacy and self-leadership are more likely to demonstrate career preparation behavior. Based on these results, educational institutions for nursing students must improve students’ self-leadership and career effectiveness through education so that they can set career goals.