Nurses' Intention To Leave And Related Factors

The widespread and long-term nursing shortage has become a global issue.This challenge will continue to grow if current trends continue because of increasing demand for high quality of care.High turnover of nursing staff has been a worldwide problem,which results in the shortage in nursing manpower and undermines the nursing quality.It is,therefore,reasonable to suggest that understanding "intent to stay or leave" might facilitate nurse managers in introducing of appropriate retention strategies.AimsThe aim of this study was to investigate the clinic nurses' intention to leave their current position or nursing,and to examine how Individual socio-demographic characteristics,Work content and environment variables,Social environment variables and Employee orientation contribute to this intent,exploring the main reasons,and finally to validate the study model.MethodsA cross-sectional quantitative design was utilized.Four questionnaires were used to get different information,they were Individual socio-demographic characteristics questionnaire,Intention to Leave questionnaires developed by NEXT study, Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire(COPSOQ),developed by Tage S Kristensen and Vilhelm Borg,modified by JianLi,and the Effort-Reward Imbalance Scale (ERI),developed by Siegrist.470 registered nurses are selected by convenience samples in 3 hospitals in Hangzhou.The entire figure was input into computer by EpiData3.1.Descriptive statistics analysis,Chi square test,Pearson correlation analysis and Binary Logistic Regression analysis were performed by SPSS13.0 statistic software.ResultsDuring the course of the past year,31.9%and 27.8%of nurses have often thought of leaving their current hospital and leaving nursing profession.Three main reasons were stated for them considering turnover:dissatisfaction with work condition,low salary and poor health.The scores of COPSOQ among 24 scales were as follow:the scores of work pace,skill discretion,meaning of work,trust and justice were higher than 3.6;the scores of burnout and stress were lower but very close to 3.6;the score of health was higher but close to 2.4;the scores of degree of freedom at work and offensive behavior were lower than 2.4.The scores of ERI scale:effort score was 0.23±4.901,reward score was 44.31±7.129,effort-reward ratio was 0.88±0.335 and overcommitment score was 17.81±2.803.There is a positive correlation between whether had children,position,title, ownership and appointment and nurses' intention to leave current position and nursing profession(P＜0.05),years of work in current hospital has a negative correlation with nurses' intention to leave current position and nursing profession (P＜0.05),and there is also a negative correlation between age,marital status,unit and nurses' intention to leave their current hospital(P＜0.05).we have found significant positive correlation between 5 scales of COPSOQ(quantitative demands, work family conflict,burnout,stress and offensive behavior)with nurses' intention to leave current position and nursing profession(P＜0.01);and there is a significant negative correlation between 15 scales of COPSOQ(skill discretion,degree of freedom at work,meaning of work,commitment to workplace,predictability, recognition,role clarity,quality of leadership,social support,job satisfaction, feedback at work,sense of community,trust,justice and health)with nurses' intention to leave current position and nursing profession(P＜0.01)With binary logistic regression analysis,there are 7 factors(call-back time per week,years in current hospital,degree of freedom at work,commitment to the workplace,quality of leadership,burnout and effort-reward ratio)entered the logistic regression model of nurses' intention to leave current hospital.There are 4 factors(emotional demands,commitment to the workplace,role clarity and burnout) entered the logistic regression model of nurses' intention to leave nursing profession.ConclusionThe result shows that nurses have a high intention to leave current hospital and nursing profession because of dissatisfaction with work condition,low salary and poor health.The scores of 24 scale of COPSOQ indicate that the working condition of nursing is not comfortable.The results of correlation analysis shows that Individual socio-demographic characteristics,Work content and environment variables,Social environment variables and Employee orientation can influence the nurses' intention to leave current hospital and nursing,which validates the study model.Call-back time per week,Years in current hospital and burnout are the main factors for nurses' intention to leave current hospital,while degree of freedom at work,commitment to the workplace,quality of leadership,and effort-reward ratio are its preventable factors. Emotional demands and burnout are the main factors which influence nurses' intention to leave nursing,while commitment to the workplace,role clarity preventable factors of nurses' turnover.