title: Motivating factors among Iranian nurses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the most important challenges of Iranian health care system is "quality of care," and it is assumed that motivated nurses are more ready to provide better care. There are limited studies investigating Iranian nurses' motivations; however, factors which motivate them have not been studied yet. Identifying the motivating factors enables nurse managers to inspire nurses for continuous quality improvement. The aim of this study was to identify motivating factors for Iranian hospital nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a cross-sectional descriptive study in which 310 nurses working at 14 hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were selected by proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected in 2010 by a researcher-developed questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and independent t-test, analysis of variance, Tukey post-hoc test, Chi-Square and Fisher's exact test were used for statistical analysis by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean score of motivation was 90.53 ± 10.76 (range: 59-121). Four motivating factors including "career development" (22.63 ± 5.66), "job characteristics" (34.29 ± 4), "job authority" (18.48 ± 2.79), and "recognition" (15.12 ± 2.5) were recognized. The least mean of the motivation score, considering the number of items, was 3.23 for career development, while the highest mean was 3.81 for job characteristics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings showed that motivation of nurses was at a medium level, which calls for improvement. The factors that have the greatest potential to motivate nurses were identified in this study and they can help managers to achieve the goal of continuous quality improvement.
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Negarandeh
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nahid
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dehghan-Nayeri
authors.affiliation: Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Elham
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ghasemi
keywords: Continuous quality improvement; Iran; motivating factors; motivation; nurses