What Motivates Intensive Care Nurses to Continue Working in the Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Study

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need to improve ICU capacity and working conditions in Norwegian hospitals and recruit and retain nurses. The aim of this study is to explore what motivates nurses to continue working in the ICU using a constructivist approach, asserting that knowledge is created through the interaction between the researcher, the participants, and the context. Eight individual semi-structured interviews with intensive care nurses were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. We identified one main overarching theme, "an interpersonal and professionally focussed work environment," highlighting how a supportive and professional atmosphere boosts intensive care nurses' job satisfaction and motivation, and three subthemes. The sub-themes were named: "unity and well-being," underscoring the need for professional and interpersonal support, "close and professional leadership," emphasising the importance of having an attentive, accessible, and unifying leader, and "professional engagement and mastery," focussing on the significance of training, continuous skill development, and task distribution based on competence and experience. This study adds new knowledge about environmental factors that contribute to the understanding of why intensive care nurses remain in their profession and their motivation to continue working in the ICU despite the high workload.