Abstract:

Objective To meet the requirements of cultivating high-quality teaching staff in the new era，this study targets the development positioning of borderland local medical universities and addresses the bottlenecks restricting the career development of nursing teachers. A long-term cultivation pathway tailored to the career growth of nursing faculty in local universities was constructed and put into practice. Methods Fulltime nursing faculty at the School of Nursing of Xinjiang Medical University were selected as participants. Through literature review，the integrative model of personal growth was adopted as the theoretical framework. To align with the career development patterns and individualized growth needs of nursing teachers，a threetiered progressive and systematic cultivation pathway of “building foundations，strengthening core competencies，and activating vitality” was developed，following expert validation and revision across multiple disciplinary fields. Faculty cultivation was implemented hierarchically from four dimensions，namely autonomy，competence，relatedness and thriving at work. Results The cultivation pathway has been implemented since 2017 and gradually optimized the echelon structure of full-time nursing faculty. By 2025，the proportion of teachers with doctoral degrees had increased to 37%. Cumulatively，faculty has secured 83 scientific research projects and 65 teaching reform projects，published 80 teaching reform papers，and won teaching competition awards on 59 occasions. A total of 56 teachers delivered oral presentations or poster exhibitions at domestic and international academic conferences，and supervised 127 innovative training projects for college students. The pass rate of teachers’ professional ethics assessment reached 100%. Conclusion The career growth cultivation pathway designed for nursing teachers in local medical universities has achieved tangible outcomes，which can provide practical references for nursing faculty development in similar institutions.

Key words: Nursing, Faculty, Career Growth