How career facilitators and barriers influence nurses' professional turnover intention

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Human Capital

Background:

• Global nursing shortage necessitates strategies to reduce professional turnover.
• Limited research exists on the interplay between career factors, professional development, and nurse turnover intention.
• Identifying facilitators and barriers is crucial for retaining nursing staff.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how career facilitators and barriers influence nurses' professional capability improvement.
• To examine the relationship between professional capability enhancement and professional turnover intention.
• To provide insights for nursing managers to reduce nurse turnover.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study design.
• Survey administered to 502 full-time nurses in a Taiwanese medical center (Jan-Mar 2018).
• Validated instruments used; structural equation modeling employed for hypothesis testing.

Main Results:

• Human capital, social capital, and discrimination positively correlated with the intention to improve professional capabilities.
• Intention to improve professional capabilities predicted action to improve capabilities.
• Action to improve professional capabilities was negatively associated with professional turnover intention.

Conclusions:

• Career facilitators and barriers can enhance professional capabilities, aiding nurse retention.
• Investing in human and social capital is a viable strategy for nursing managers to decrease turnover intention.
• Findings offer practical implications for improving nurse retention and addressing workforce shortages.