Linking Succession Planning to Nurses’ Performance Management: The Mediating Role of Career Development

Background: Succession planning is essential to the long-term viability of healthcare institutions, especially in the nursing profession where qualified personnel are in great demand. Nurses' performance outcomes can be linked to succession planning activities through the use of career development programs and opportunities as mediator. Organizations can enhance the quality of patient care by improving performance management systems and offering nurses clear pathways for growth, skill enhancement, and advancement. Objective: Assess the performance management of nurses and the extent of succession planning. It also sought to investigate the association between the two and the intermediating function that career development plays in this association. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional correlational investigation was carried out. Setting: All Main University Hospital inpatient care units. Subjects: 745 nurses made up the entire population sample that we used (purposive sampling technique). Tools: The career development scale, performance management scale, and succession planning scale were the three instruments that were employed. Results: According to the study's findings, while all nurses have a moderate opinion of succession planning, the highest percentage of participants (80%) had a positive impression of performance management. Furthermore, 70.1% of nurses hold a positive perspective on career advancement. Finally, the professional development category had the highest mean score (Mean ± SD=3.85 ± 0.34). Besides, a statistically noteworthy association (R= 0.561 & p<0.001) exists between performance management and succession planning. Additionally, there is a statistically significant correlation (R= 0.357 & p<0.001) between career growth and succession planning. Career advancement and performance management have a statistically significant relationship (p <0.001 and R = 0.514). The structural equation model (SEM) model demonstrates and concludes that career development partially mediates succession planning and performance management. Conclusions: Healthcare organizations may prepare high-potential nurses for essential roles and overcome future talent shortages and instability by combining career development and training with succession planning. Additionally, a well-run succession planning system may advance nurses' professional growth and performance, which will ultimately result in the accomplishment of organizational and individual objectives. Nurse managers could save recruitment costs by selecting or promoting nurses from the organization's pool of qualified nursing workers.