Nursing staff and their team: Impact on intention to leave

The aim was to examine the relationship between the quality of team-member exchange experienced by nursing staff and their intention to leave. Job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment are considered as mediators.

While the shortage of nurses is a management and policy priority, few studies have studied the relationships between nursing staff and their team, key organizational attitudes, and intentions to leave the organization.

A questionnaire was administered to 217 registered nurses and nurse assistants in Belgium. Data were collected in 2012. To analyse the data, descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and path analyses were conducted.

Team-member exchange has a positive impact on nursing staff satisfaction and affective commitment. Job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment fully mediated the impact of team-member exchange on nursing staff's intention to leave.

This study illustrates the potential benefits of the positive influence of team-member exchange on key organizational attitudes of nursing staff, and the negative influence on intention to leave through affective commitment and job satisfaction.