Career Maturity of Nurses Working in Intensive Care Units in University Hospitals and Factors Related to Their Maturity

<p>This study conducted a questionnaire survey with 712 nurses working in the intensive care units (ICU nurses) of 21 university hospitals nationwide in Japan, who expressed consent in study participation, to understand career maturity of these nurses and to identify factors affecting their career maturity. In total 217 responses (30.5%) were collected, and excluding responses from nursing managers (head nurse, deputy head nurse, chief) and those who did not complete the section of the Nurse Career Maturity Scale, the remaining 193 (97.5%) were included in the analysis. Descriptive statistics, bivariate, and multivariate analysis (multiple regression analysis) were conducted using career maturity as the objective variable. The explanatory variables included personal factors, workplace environment factors, nursing perspectives, factors related to interaction with others, self-evaluation, and factors related to self-growth and problem solving. Multiple regression analysis showed that the adjusted coefficient of determination in this model was R2＝0.561. The analysis identified the following five factors related to career maturity: career commitment, occupational identity of nurses, actively and willingly participating in clinical ladder (skill development) training, making efforts to improve their own shortcomings, and always wishing to learn new knowledge and skills. These results suggest that it is important for ICU nurses working in university hospitals to improve career maturity. Through this process, increasing their interest and enthusiasm to acquire the expertise necessary for ICU nurses as improving the career commitment is important to develop career maturity.</p>