[Intention to leave and turnover among nurses: a critical analysis of their measurement and interpretation]

Intention to leave and turnover among nurses: a critical analysis of their measurement and interpretation. The intention of nurses to leave (ITL) the profession or the ward where they work has been documented over the past 30 years but exacerbated after the Covid pandemic. The results of the numerous studies on ITL are difficult to compare because they often not distinguish whether one wants to leave the hospital, the ward or the profession. With few exceptions, it is not easy to trace the identikit of nurses who are most likely to leave the profession and, above all, it is not known how many nurses who express the intention to leave actually will leave. Repeated cross-sectional studies are needed to monitor the phenomenon together with longitudinal and mixed methods studies to better analyse the motivations and implement preventive strategies to improve retention.