Aim: To explore what motivates individuals to engage in nursing as a career. Background: Recruitment and retention of nurses is a worldwide concern primarily associated with the high attrition of new graduates and an aging workforce. It is therefore necessary to urgently understand why individuals choose to nurse, what keeps them engaged in nursing, and in what ways healthcare systems can support nurses' career development and retention. Method: This paper reports and discusses data from the first interviews in a longitudinal multi method study with 28 undergraduate student nurses, 25 registered nurses, six Nurse Unit Managers and three Directors of Nursing from four hospitals across a healthcare organisation. Results: Thematic analysis yielded four key themes common to all categories of participants: a desire to help, caring, a sense of achievement and self-validation. Conclusions: These themes represented what motivated individuals to enter nursing and sustains them in their chosen career as either nurses or managers. Implications for nursing management: Understanding the personal premises and key motivators that underpin individuals' desires to seek, prepare for and remain in nursing inform effective recruitment, nursing management and practices in retaining nursing staff