Pediatric Nurses' Turnover Intention and Its Association with Calling in China's Tertiary Hospitals

To examine the turnover intention of Chinese pediatric nurses, its influential socio-demographic factors, and the association with calling and job satisfaction.

We randomly surveyed 10% of the nurses from 50% of the children's tertiary hospitals nationwide in China. Data were collected on nurses' turnover intention and associated factors such as age, income, skill level, working years, job satisfaction, and calling in 2017.

In total, 547 nurses were surveyed, and the response rate was 98.6%. More than a third of pediatric nurses had the intention to quit their current jobs. Influential factors associated with turnover intention included position, skill level, calling, and job satisfaction. Low job satisfaction of administration, workload, relationships with colleagues, work itself, and remuneration and benefits were negatively associated with turnover intention, with the odds ratio of high turnover intention in the lowest level of satisfaction ranging from 2.0-7.8 when compared with the medium level. However, calling was the strongest factor influencing turnover intention, and a weak calling may increase the risk of high turnover intention more than ten times, after adjusting for job satisfaction. Job satisfaction may partially mediate the relationship between calling and turnover intention.

The turnover intention of nurses was high in Chinese pediatric tertiary hospital. Calling may be the strongest influential factor of turnover intention.

To alleviate pediatric nurses' turnover rate, it may be helpful to develop interventions to increase job satisfaction and calling.