Motivational Factors Shaping Lithuanian Nurses’ Professional Development

Abstract

Continuing professional development (CPD) is essential for sustaining nurses’ competence and ensuring high-quality patient care. While its importance is widely recognised, little is known about the motivational factors influencing Lithuanian nurses’ engagement in CPD. To address this gap, the study draws on Self-Determination Theory, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, providing a multidimensional perspective that captures both intrinsic drivers (e.g., autonomy, competence, self-actualisation) and external influences (e.g., organisational requirements, job security). This study explored nurses’ motivations, their interrelationships, and links with sociodemographic and work environment characteristics. A cross-sectional survey of 378 nurses from hospitals and primary healthcare institutions was conducted, with three scales of motivation—career-related, formal work-related, and personal motives—demonstrating good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.694–0.874). Analysis of 364 valid responses showed that personal motives were strongest (M = 4.4), followed by career-related (M = 4.3) and formal work-related motives (M = 4.1). Nurses in primary care and those with less than five years of work experience reported significantly higher motivation than hospital-based and more experienced colleagues (p < 0.001). Strong correlations were found among all three motivational domains. These findings highlight the need for tailored strategies that strengthen intrinsic motivation and sustain CPD engagement throughout nurses’ careers. From a psychological point of view, nurses' involvement in CPD is strongly influenced by internal motivation related to self-realisation, strengthening professional identity, and job satisfaction. The results show that personal motives are closely related to psychological well-being, so CPD can affect not only the improvement of competencies, but also the psychological resilience and professional satisfaction of nurses. The study’s findings should be interpreted with caution due to several limitations. Self-reported data may reflect social desirability bias, the voluntary and non-representative sample limits generalisability, and the study did not examine the effectiveness of specific CPD support mechanisms. These constraints indicate the need for future research using larger representative samples and intervention-based designs.