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International trends of nursing career path: A systematic review

Background: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia needs a nursing career path to guide nurses to advancement in their profession. On-the-job professional development activities allow nurses to increase their knowledge and skills without needing to leave the work environment. However, a clear career path for nurses' professional development is still lacking. Aim: Our systematic review aims to identify the national and international trends regarding on-the-job training for nursing career path development. Methods: We conducted an electronic search for studies published from 2000 to 2019 using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, PubMed, and Medline databases. We included studies in our review if they described on-the-job professional development activities for nurses, were written in English, and were published in indexed journals. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines and the guideline for conducting systematic reviews in medical education. Results: We included a total of 18 studies. The sample size ranged from 2 to 1600 participants. The on-the-job professional development activities we conducted were of short, medium, and long durations. In all studies, the activities increased nurses' knowledge and skills. No data were reported about nurses' retention in most of the studies. Only one study reported that using e-learning and clinical training with nurse–mentors in a community setting for a long period of time increased their retention. Conclusion: Numerous on-the-job professional development activities are available for nurses. However, a clear career path for nursing professional development needs to be developed, especially for nurses holding diplomas. On-the-job professional development activities allow nurses to increase their knowledge and skills without needing to leave the work environment. However, a clear career path for nurses' professional development is still lacking. Our systematic review aims to identify the national and international trends regarding on-the-job training for nursing career-path development. We conducted an electronic search for studies published from 2000 to 2019 using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, and Medline databases. We included a total of 18 studies. The on-the-job professional development activities we included in the review were of short, medium, and long durations. In all studies, the activities increased nurses' knowledge and skills. No data were reported about nurses' retention in most of the studies. Only one study reported that using e-learning and clinical training with nurse–mentors in a community setting for a long period of time increased their retention. Accordingly, a clear career path for nursing professional development needs to be developed, especially for nurses holding diplomas.