Investigation of the relationship between work motivation, work performance and turnover intention of surgical...

This study aims to examine the relationship between work motivation, performance, and turnover intentions among surgical nurses, and to explore their impact on nurse retention and care quality.

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted in a university hospital's surgical units between March and August 2024. The study included 322 nurses working in clinics, intensive care units and operating rooms for at least six months. Sociodemographic and Descriptive Characteristics of Form, the Nurses Work Motivation Scale (NWMS), the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ) and the Nurse Turnover Intention Scale (NTIS) were used to collect the data.

In this study, the mean total score of the NWMS was 58.66 ± 8.95. The mean total score of the IWPQ was 55.02 ± 8.65, the mean total score of the task subscale was 20.32 ± 3.77, the mean total score of the contextual performance subscale was 21.80 ± 5.37, and the median total score of the counterproductive work behaviour subscale was 14.00 ± 2.59. The mean total score of the NTIS was 37.88 ± 8.15. In this study, a positive and statistically significant relationship was found between the mean total scores of HWMS with IWPQ (r: 0.359, p: 0.000), task performance subscale (r: 0.321, p: 0.000), contextual performance subscale (r: 0.2851, p: 0.000) and counterproductive work behaviour subscale (r: 0.219, p: 0.000). A negative and statistically significant (r: -0.145, p: 0.009) relationship was also found between the mean total scores of NWMS and NTIS.

This study determined that as nurse work motivation increased, individual work performance increased and turnover intentions decreased.