Factors Affecting Career Development of Nurse Professional Mothers Working at Selected Hospitals Under Addis Ababa Health Bureau

Abstract

On a female dominated profession such as nursing motherhood is still associated with limited opportunities of career development. While many studies were done to study work life balance of professional mothers in Ethiopia less attention was given for studying the career path of nurse mothers and the effect of motherhood associated factors on career development of nurses. Thus the purpose of this paper is to study the effect of motherhood on career development of nurse professional mothers. This paper used a quantitative approach and employed explanatory cross sectional design. The study was carried out in two out of six hospitals under Addis Ababa Health bureau with a sample size of 200. Structured questionnaire (in Amharic and English) was used to collect data. Out of the administered 200 questionnaires 200 was returned with a response rate of 100%. Descriptive analytics was done to determine frequency of variables and binary logistic regression was done to determine the magnitude and scale of significance of associated variables. Socio demographic factors (Age and Dependent children), Work family factors (Work life balance and Career break) and Organizational Factors (Organizational policies and Practices and Supervisor support) was considered potential factors which has an effect on career development of nurse professional mothers. The results indicate that more than half of the nurse professional mothers have career development. The study also revealed that only work life balance was a significant predictor of career development of nurse professional mothers.