Nursing Practice Environment, Work-Family Conflict, and Turnover Intention Among Female Nurses With Children Under...

To investigate the levels of the nursing practice environment, work-family conflict, and turnover intention and explore the mediating role of work-family conflict between the nursing practice environment and turnover intention among female nurses with children under 18 years.

An online survey recruited 305 registered female nurses from 45 prefectures across Japan between July and September 2025. Variables were measured using demographic data, scales of maternal feeling of childcare burden, the practice environment of the nursing work index, work-family conflict, and turnover intention. Data analyses were performed using one-way analysis of variance, t-tests, Pearson correlation analysis, multivariate linear regression analysis, and the Process 4.0 macro plug-in method (SPSS v. 26.0).

Turnover intention among female nurses differed significantly according to their cohabitation status, youngest child's age, department, shift pattern, weekly overtime hours, night-shift frequency, and the schedule notice period. Nurses who lived alone with children, had a child aged 16-18, with weekly overtime more than 8 h, and received schedules only 1-3 days in advance showed significantly higher turnover intention. Participants scored 12.50 ± 7.22 on the maternal feeling of childcare burden scale, 2.41 ± 0.51 on the practice environment scale, 55.74 ± 11.88 on the work-family conflict scale, and 15.20 ± 4.89 on the turnover intention scale. Higher work-family conflict was associated with greater turnover intention (B = 0.118, SE = 0.023, β = 0.282, p < 0.001) after controlling for the nursing practice environment.

Among female nurses with children under 18 years of age, work-family conflict significantly mediated between the nursing practice environment and turnover intention. Reducing overtime and improving schedule predictability were critical, particularly for nurses living alone with their children and those with adolescents. Resources should foster supportive workplace culture that enhances task efficiency to manage workloads and minimize excessive overtime. Beyond the hospital, long-term cultural change promoting equitable distribution of domestic labor is essential.