What are the career planning and development practices for nurses in hospitals? Is there a difference between private and public hospitals?

Aim.  The aim was to determine the opinions of nurse managers about career planning and development for nurses in hospitals. Background.  Career planning and development are defined as an important and necessary tool in the development of nurses as professionals and in retaining nurses in a facility. Design.  A descriptive survey. Method.  The research population comprised nurse managers in 200+ bed hospitals on the European side of Istanbul province ( n  = 668). The entire population was targeted and 373 nurse managers were included in the study (55·8% return rate). Data were collected with a 32‐item survey form that had three sections to determine the nurse managers’ demographic characteristics, the career development practices at the facility where they worked, the nurse managers’ responsibilities for career development and their expected competencies and recommendations. Findings.  The findings of this study suggest that the most common technique used for nurses for career development was education programs, the career development practices of private hospitals were more developed than public hospitals and the nurse managers’ perceptions about career development were different according to their management level, age group and educational level ( p  < 0·05). Result.  Although different practices were found in public and private hospitals in Turkey there were no effective career development practices identified and the nurse managers did not have agreement on the subject of career development. Relevance to clinical practice.  Hospitals which provide opportunity for horizontal and vertical promotion and have clear development policies will be successful hospitals which are prefered by high quality nurses. This study draws attention to the importance of career planning in nursing and the need for nurse managers to take an active role in career planning and development.