Development and psychometric testing of the career success in Nursing Scale

To develop and test the psychometric properties of an instrument assessing career success in nurses.

Despite the importance of achieving success in nursing, to date, this construct has been measured using unidimensional or generic scales not fully reflecting career success as perceived by nurses.

This scale development study used a large sample of nurses across 10 hospitals in Tabriz, Iran. Items were generated based on existing literature and previous, research team-led, qualitative study, followed by testing content and face validity of the items. Exploratory factor analysis (N = 530 nurses) then assessed the underlying structure of the scale, and reliability was tested using Cronbach's alpha and a 2-week test-retest correlation.

From the initial 73 items, fourteen rated by experts as 'not relevant' and seven with poor face validity were deleted. Exploratory factor analysis further identified 13 poor items. The final 39-item solution extracted four robust career success factors: expected career progress, providing quality care, effective self-regulation, and person-organization fit. Cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlation showed excellent reliability.

This multidimensional nursing-specific scale with very good psychometric properties is suitable for individual/group-based decisions.

This instrument can assess current perceptions of career success in nurses, so work resources can be allocated to improve policies, services and training programmes to meet career aspirations of nurses and objectives of the organization. Having a robust scale of career success will enable future research in the field of career success as specific to nursing in a clinical setting.