Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Nowadays, nurses play a key role in all health-care systems in the world. To improve the professional conditions and increase the quality of care, nurses' career development should be fulfilled in a specific and targeted way. The aim of this study was to investigate the factors affecting career development of nurses in Iran. METHOD: This prospective study was conducted using Delphi technique in three stages with the presence of 60 nurses and nursing faculty members. In the first round, four questions were used to assess the participants' perspective career development, how to evaluate it, its effective factors and suggestions to design a career development model. In the second and third rounds, to collect participants' opinion and create consensus, a researcher-made questionnaire based on the results obtained during the first round was used. RESULTS: According to the results, 25 effective factors were extracted and classified into 6 categories of professional development, increasing organizational influence, individual development, specialization, improvement of career dignity, and psychological acceptance. The nurses' career development model was also developed and validated with the results. CONCLUSION: According to the obtained results, it can be concluded that career development in the nursing area is achieved by realizing six factors of professional development, specialization, increasing organizational influence, individual development, psychological acceptance, improvement of career dignity, and psychological acceptance.