Reasons for leaving among psychiatric nurses: A two-year prospective study

Recruiting and retaining nursing staff has been increasingly identified by nurse managers and the media as a problem of 'crisis' proportions, but until recently there has been very little systematic research into what factors influence the nurse to leave. The present study addressed this issue and asks: 'Why do nurses leave?' and 'What happens to them once they do leave?' This study was a follow-up to an earlier one by Bamber ( 1 ) and aimed to generate new information which would either support or reject the findings of the earlier study.