The impact of hospital mergers on organizational culture, organizational commitment, professional commitment, job satisfaction, and intent to turnover on registered professional nurses on medical-surgical hospital units

Fiscal restraints, decreasing reimbursement, and increasing competition have resulted in hospital downsizing and mergers with resultant restructuring and job redesign. Organizational variables previously related to organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover may no longer apply.; This study examined the effects of a hospital merger in relation to organizational culture, organizational and professional commitment, job satisfaction, intent to turnover, and demographic variables. Ninety-eight nurses representing three hospitals (Hospitals A, B, and C) in Western New York who have been involved in a merger process since 1996 participated in this study through the use of questionnaires and interviews. Statistical analysis included measures of central tendency, paired t-tests, factor analysis, ANOVA, Kruskall Wallis Test, Pearson Product Moment correlations, and multiple regression.; The nurses at Hospital A, the “acquiring hospital,” demonstrated slightly higher level of commitment to the Healthcare System than those nurses at Hospitals B and C, the “acquired hospitals.” Although none of the nurses demonstrated strong organizational commitment levels, nurses at all three hospitals were concerned about the fate of their particular hospital. Professional commitment was moderate at each Hospital with nurses expressing disillusionment with their profession. Nurses at all three hospitals had no strong feelings about either staying or leaving their present position although the interviews demonstrated that nurses with greater tenure wanted to stay within the Healthcare System because of benefits and seniority concerns.; Problems with organizational identity were more prevalent for Hospitals B and C. Communication was seen as a vital link between nursing staff and administration for information seeking and information giving purposes.; Significant positive relationships were found for organizational commitment to Hospital, organizational commitment to Healthcare System, professional commitment, and job satisfaction at all three hospitals. An inverse relationship between these variables and intent to turnover also existed while the demographic variables were not statistically correlated. Regression analysis revealed that organizational commitment to the employing Hospital was the only significant predictor variable of intent to turnover with the independent variables accounted for approximately 40% of the variance.; This study provided empirical evidence towards a better understanding of the impact of hospital mergers on professional nursing staff.