Hospital clinical career advancement programs: comparing perceptions of nurse participants and nonparticipants

The study reported in this article describes nurse participants and nonparticipants in hospital clinical career advancement programs (clinical ladders) and compares perceptions in relation to program intrinsic outcomes, needs, and criteria for level advancement. A stratified random sample consisted of 120 participants and 480 nonparticipants drawn from 1,769 clinical nurses employed full time at five regional general hospitals. The findings suggest that nurses' demographic characteristics do not influence program participation status and that clinical advancement programs have limited impact upon job enrichment designed to recruit and retain clinical nurses providing direct patient care. Program participants (106; 88.3 percent) differed significantly at the .05 level from nonparticipants (385; 80.2 percent) on each factor area measuring perceptions of clinical advancement programs.