title: [Nurses' experience of career ladder programs in a general hospital].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to identify and describe nurses' experience of a career ladder program (CLP) in a general hospital in Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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."
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nusing, Sunchon National Universtiy, Sunchon, Korea. kopark@sunchon.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Kwang-Ok
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Myungsun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002322:Career Mobility; D005260:Female; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D015397:Program Evaluation