Impact of engagement factors on nurses' intention to leave hospital employment

Abstract

Aim To determine the impact of workforce engagement factors on nurses' intention to leave their hospital. Background Nurse retention is important for safe patient care. It is unknown whether meaning and joy in work, occupational fatigue, job satisfaction and unprofessional behaviour experiences predict hospital nurse turnover intentions. Method This cross‐sectional study involved responses from 747 nurses from two south‐western hospitals. Measures included surveys to capture meaning and joy in work, job satisfaction, occupational fatigue and unprofessional behaviour exposure/impact. Results Following correlational analyses, manifest variables significantly correlated with related latent factors. In structural equation modelling, greater chronic occupational fatigue was the strongest and meaning and joy at work (negative direction) the next strongest predictor of turnover intention. Although significant, job satisfaction and acute fatigue were weak predictors. Inter‐shift recovery did not predict intent to leave. Conclusion This is the first study to identify Chronic Fatigue and meaning and joy in work as significant predictors of hospital nurse turnover intentions. Implications for Nursing Management Employing practices that decrease chronic fatigue and increase meaning/joy in work are recommended to improve nurse retention.

Chronic Fatigue Predicts Hospital Nurse Turnover Intentions

“…Two protective factors, meaning and joy in work and resilience at work, were strongly associated but did not explain variability in burnout or intention to leave in our study. In a previous study, 1 meaning and joy in work mediated the impact of chronic fatigue on turnover intention, whereas in this study, chronic fatigue is the dominant factor determining both nurse burnout and turnover intention. Among UK nurses, 29 on-the-job embeddedness, which has elements of meaning and joy in work, mediated the impact of job stress on turnover intention.…”

“…This multivariate study builds on prepandemic findings among hospital nurses. 1 Nine percent of nurses in this sample reported that they intended to leave the hospital within 6 to 12 months, a number that should be alarming to nurse administrators. This is comparable with published reports among US nurses (8%) 8 but is lower than reports with international nurses: Thai clinical nurses, 10% 19 ; Australian clinical nurses, 33% 20 ; and Chinese clinical nurses, 25%.…”

“…Among European citizens, 5 acute COVID-19 experience was less distressing when respondents reported more meaning in their lives. Given that meaning and joy in work predicted less turnover intention among nurses, 1 meaning and joy in work may protect against distress from COVID-related work experiences. By allowing the continuation of normal functioning despite stressful occurrences, 6 resilience also potentially protects nurses 7 and may prevent turnover 8 .…”

“…In a study among 747 hospital nurses, greater chronic occupational fatigue was the strongest predictor, and lower meaning and joy in work was the next strongest predictor of turnover intentions 1 . The pandemic has exacerbated the presence of occupational fatigue, a maladaptive condition that can lead to symptoms resembling depression and eventually inefficient work; it may not be relieved by rest or altered work demands 2 .…”

Occupational Fatigue: Relationship With Personality Traits and Decent Work

“…On the basis of the literature, fatigue and stress seem reciprocally associated; the development of one can predict the insurgence of the other, with recovery acting positively in reducing both (e.g., Winwood et al, 2005Winwood et al, , 2006Doerr et al, 2015;Blustein et al, 2016). According to this principle, Winwood et al (2005Winwood et al ( , 2006 provided an extensively used (e.g., Somantri et al, 2020;Rutledge et al, 2021) and comprehensive classification of occupational fatigue, distinguishing between acute fatigue, chronic fatigue, and persistent fatigue (Winwood et al, 2005(Winwood et al, , 2006.…”