This paper reports initial findings from a longitudinal study of autonomy, willingness to risk, exit/voice (E/V) and managerial environment (ME) as predictors of registered nurses' intent to stay (ITS) that is being conducted at eight Midwestern hospitals in the USA. In this two-stage study, initial findings are based on responses from 524 staff nurses. Due to the nature of the ITS variable, two logistic regression analyses were computed to test the predictive relationships of the independent variables. In the first, subjects with neutral ITS scores were grouped with subjects who had no intent to stay. Both ME and E/V were predictive of ITS. In the second analysis, the subjects with neutral ITS scores were grouped with subjects who intended to stay. In this case, only ME was predictive. While the per cent variance accounted for by these variables is not as high as some other variables reported in previous research, these variables are amenable to managerial interventions.