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

Background: 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. Objective: To investigate the relationship between working conditions and career barriers experienced by nurses. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: 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.