Investigation of the relationship between working conditions and career barriers of nurses

Nurses are the largest part of a country's healthcare workforce and need to improve themselves professionally and plan careers. If we know the career barriers, it will guide the solution suggestions on this issue.

To investigate the relationship between working conditions and career barriers experienced by nurses.

This study was conducted using the descriptive type research design involving 379 nurses working in a province of Turkey between May and June 2020. Data were collected using the Sociodemographic Characteristics Form and the Career Barriers in Nursing Scale.

Of the participants scores, 37.21±12.1 were in the "organizational culture and policies" subscale, 17.46±6.0 in the "personal preferences and perceptions" subscale, 10.97±4.5 in the "negative thoughts about the profession" subscale, 8.37±3.0 in the "stereotypical biases" subscale, and 16.20±5.2 in the "multiple roles" subscale. The average total score of career barriers in nursing was 90.23±27.1.

A significant but weak negative correlation was found between the total average of the Career Barriers in Nursing Scale score and age (r = -0.121; p = 0.019), graduation date (r = -0.025; p = 0.120), and working time (r = -0.019; p = 0.115). No significant correlation was found between working time in the current institution, average working time per week, and total of the Career Barriers in Nursing Scale score.