Intention to Stay in Specialist Trauma Nurses: Relationship With Role Conflict, Stress, and Organizational Support

Specialist trauma nurses contribute to shortening hospital stay, lowering intensive care unit readmission rates, and improving treatment outcomes through early detection and management of health problems in trauma patients. However, Korean specialist trauma nurses have a higher turnover rate than other nurses due to negative factors like unclear job descriptions and inconsistent job activities.

This study aimed to examine the levels of and relationships among role conflict, occupational stress, perceived organizational support, and intent to stay in Korean specialist trauma nurses.

We enrolled 53 specialist trauma nurses from eight regional trauma centers in Korea. Data on role conflict, occupational stress, perceived organizational support, and intent to stay were collected using a structured questionnaire. Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Bonferroni post hoc tests were conducted to examine differences in intent to stay. Spearman's correlation coefficients were used to examine correlations between the key variables.

High intent to stay was associated with periodic job training, job satisfaction, and perceived high workload. Role conflict was positively correlated with occupational stress, whereas both were negatively correlated with perceived organizational support. Intent to stay was negatively correlated with occupational stress and positively correlated with perceived organizational support.

Effective improvement measures that lower occupational stress and increase perceived organizational support will help maintain the positions of specialist trauma nurses. These results highlight the need to specify the scope of practice and implement practical measures like career development programs that enhance professional nursing competencies to retain specialist trauma nurses.