Depressive symptoms, professional quality of life and turnover intention in Korean nurses

Abstract

Aim The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of depressive symptoms and professional quality of life on turnover intention. Background The high turnover rate of nurses is a critical healthcare issue globally. Introduction Nurses often experience depressive symptoms and compassion fatigue due to the efforts of patient care. The impact of such psychological health issues on turnover intention needs to be confirmed. Methods Participants were 10 163 female nurses who completed an online or mobile survey using the Korea Nurses’ Health Study. To identify the influencing factors on the turnover intention of nurses, descriptive statistics, spearman’s correlation coefficients and multivariable ordinal logistic regression were performed. Results The turnover intention increased by about 2.81–4.60 times when depressive symptom was moderate or more, 1.14 times when secondary traumatic stress disorder was moderate or more, and 1.54 times when burnout was moderate or more. When compassion satisfaction was moderate or high, the turnover intention decreased by 0.72 and 0.52 times. Discussion Korean nurses demonstrated high levels of depressive symptoms, secondary traumatic stress and burnout, while demonstrating lower levels of compassion satisfaction. The results of this study demonstrate that depressive symptoms, secondary traumatic stress, burnout and compassion satisfaction affect turnover intention. Conclusions To reduce nurses’ turnover intention, it is necessary to reduce depressive symptoms and enhance the quality of professional life. Implications for nursing and health policy Hospital managers need to maintain adequate nurse‐to‐patient ratios and provide nurses with a supportive work environment. Also, health policymakers need to identify factors affecting hospital nurses’ turnover intention and provide strategies to address them. These conditions may reduce the excessive workload placed on nurses, thereby preventing depression and burnout and improving nurses’ quality of work–life.

Determinants of healthcare worker turnover in intensive care units: A micro-macro multilevel analysis

“…In addition, recent studies demonstrate that turnover intention is negatively correlated with years of nursing experience and years in the current position [ 11 , 48 ]. Job dissatisfaction or satisfaction has also frequently been reported as a determinant of intention to leave or to stay [ 11 , 13 , 14 , 21 , 22 , 27 , 28 ]. Indeed, job satisfaction of hospital nurses is closely related to work environment, structural empowerment, organizational commitment, professional commitment, job stress, patient satisfaction and patient-nurse ratios.…”

“…In addition, several studies in different countries highlight the importance of job satisfaction and favorable work environment, with ineffective working relationships with other nurses and physicians and lack of supervisory support increasing turnover intention [7,9,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18]. Burnout, work-life imbalance, moral distress, depression symptoms and workplace violence and bullying appeared to lead to higher nurse turnover intention and had an impact on nurse quality of life [12,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Moreover, social support and job satisfaction were mediators between burnout and turnover intention [21,26].…”

Factors affecting frontline Korean nurses’ mental health during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…Park et al (2020) reported that healthcare providers who were in charge of COVID‐19 screening or exposed to confirmed cases were more likely to be depressed than workers in rare contact departments. Depressive symptoms experienced by nurses can increase turnover intention (Pang et al 2020).…”

The relationships of both transition shock, empathy, resilience and coping strategies with professional quality of life in newly graduated nurses

“…Recently, professional quality of life in nurses received much concern, especially for those employed in the emergency rooms, intensive care units and oncology wards [5]. Previous studies discovered that, higher CS and lower CF significantly contributed to higher job satisfaction, and lower anxiety, depression and turnover intention in experienced nurses [6,7]. As entry-level nurses, NGNs encountered great challenges in the transition to clinical practice, which resulted in high job stress, burnout and turnover intention [8].…”

“…As entry-level nurses, NGNs encountered great challenges in the transition to clinical practice, which resulted in high job stress, burnout and turnover intention [8]. Moreover, most existing studies explored the subjects of stress, job satisfaction, burnout and turnover, little attention was paid to professional quality of life in NGNs [6][7][8]. Thus, to examine the mechanism which affected professional quality of life in NGNs might contribute to developing strategies for facilitating CS, alleviating CF, and reducing turnover intention eventually.…”