This study was intended to provide basic data for reducing the career plateaus of clinical nurses.

The participants were 288 clinical nurses who worked at five hospitals, general hospitals, and tertiary hospitals in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Chungcheong provinces and had more than one year of clinical experience. The research data were collected from December 26, 2022, to April 7, 2023, using structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS software. The study conducted mean, standard deviation, percentage, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson‘s correlation coefficient, and hierarchical regression analysis.

Perceived organizational support was identified as the factor influencing structural career plateaus. Factors influencing content career plateaus included growth needs, skill variety, organizational justice, and perceived organizational support.

The above research results suggest that to increase the motivation of clinical nurses and reduce career plateaus, it is necessary to improve awareness and systems of human resource management at the organizational level.

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe nurses' experience of a career ladder program (CLP) in a general hospital in Korea.

The data were collected from 15 nurses who participated in the CLP. Each nurse completed individual in-depth interviews, for which the main interview question was "How do you describe your experience of CLP?". All interview data were transcribed and were analyzed using the grounded theory method.

The core category of the experience of CLP was identified as "challenging to rebirth as an expert". The participants used five action/interaction strategies such as "taking some time for introspection", "appreciating the essence of nursing", "making use of feedback positively", "throwing away doubts about their own capabilities", "exerting themselves with confidence". The consequence of the process of adjusting to CLP was "positioning a differentiated expert."

The results of this study show that participants recognized CLP as a powerful resource which leads them to professional growth and development. Thus, CLP could be utilized as a clinical career-promoting program and ultimately as a program for providing high-quality nursing services.

The purpose of this study was to explore the structure and characteristics of nursing college students' personality-based career attitudes.

A Q-methodology was used to identify factors in nursing students' personality-based career attitudes. A Q sample was collected from in-depth and objective interviews and literature reviews. A P sample consisted of 27 nursing students.

Results revealed three factors: Deliberateness-oriented, Positive-oriented, and Negative-oriented. The ‘Deliberateness-oriented’ factor was characterized by preference of logical and objective ways in evaluation and trying to seek deep relationships with only a small number of people. The ‘Positive-oriented’ factor showed creative, autonomous and sociable traits and put value on extensive interpersonal relations. The ‘Negative-oriented’ factor focused on possibility and enjoyed artistic actions. All 3 factors were negative in NGO or political activities.

Based on this result, curriculum development for nursing students should give students a variety of experiences. These findings will be the basic data for finding appropriate positions within the work place for nursing students and help them select appropriate careers for their own personality types.