Background: Countries around the world are presently confronted with increasing health workforce demand, especially at the Primary Health Centres (PHCs). The growing demand for accessible healthcare services is reinforced by the ageing population. The emergence and re-emergence of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases have impacted the health workforce at this level, especially Nurses and Midwives, whose roles are critical in integrated healthcare delivery. Even at that, these critical health workforces in the PHCs are continuously being replaced with lower-level manpower, especially in Nigeria, where they are replaced daily with community health extension workers, hence the present study.

Objective: The study investigated Primary Health Care career intentions of nursing students in selected nursing programmes, in Kaduna state, Nigeria.

Method: The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. The study population was final year pre-registration nursing students across selected nursing programmes based on senatorial districts and type of programme in Kaduna State. A sample size of 136 students was used for the study. Study respondents who met the inclusion criteria for the study were drawn proportionately from the selected programs using a simple random sampling technique and were given a self-administered, researcher-structured questionnaire for their responses. Data entry and analysis were done using IBM® SPSS Statistical Package Version 23.

Findings: Findings revealed a mean score of 26.6 (±5.9) years. Less than half (n=63; 46.3%) of respondents reported adequate satisfaction with PHC curriculum exposure, while the majority (n=125; 91.9%) reported adequate participation in community posting. However, these could not translate to intention to work in PHC among respondents as PHC was ranked least (weight=798; 17.8%) among the preferred work settings. There was no statistical association between type of nursing program, PHC curriculum exposure, participation in PHC clinical placement, and intentions to work in PHC, respectively (p>0.05).

Conclusion: The study concluded that final year pre-registration nursing students across Kaduna State have the least intention to work in PHC even as there was no statistical association between type of nursing program, PHC curriculum exposure, participation in PHC clinical placement, and intentions to work in PHC respectively. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others, that transition of graduates of newly introduced community nursing and midwifery programmes to work in PHC upon graduation should be a point of focus, just as the acute-focused nursing curriculum should be reviewed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN).