This purpose of this study was to analyze the performance of the clinical ladder system applied for securing good nurses and improving nurses’ competency in a general hospital. The subjects were 356 nurses working in general wards and special wards (intensive care unit, operating room, recovery room, emergency room, endoscopy room) of K general hospital in Seoul. 170 nurses had been involved in a clinical career ladder system, and 186 nurses had never been involved. The data were collected over a period of about 30 days from March 28 to April 28, 2017 by self-administered questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS Win 23 software. Regarding nursing competency, there was a difference between men and women (t=-2.885, p=.004), and there was also difference depending on education level, marital status, position and experience of clinical career ladder system. As for the perception on career ladder system, there was no difference according to sex, education level, marital status, position, and department. However, there was a difference in the perception depending on the experience of the clinical career ladder system (t=-4.644, p<.001). Clinical career and nursing competency were positively correlated and the correlation was statistically significant (r=.614, p<.001). Nurses with K-Hospital Career Ladder System for Nurse (KCLS) experience had an average of 19,432 higher nursing competencies than nurses with no KCLS experience. It is expected that this study results can be used to improve the clinical career ladder system, which contribution to the provision of high quality nursing service.