Job stress and turnover among registered nurses in acute care : a regression analysis

Nurse turnover needs further exploration in the Canadian experience. This study’s purpose was to examine whether job stress, as indicated by burnout and psychological distress, explains turnover among acute care registered nurses. The research questions were: To what extent does job stress explain nurses’ intent or likelihood of leaving their position or the nursing profession? What other factors, over and above job stress, explain nurses’ intent or likelihood of leaving their position and the nursing profession? This secondary analysis of cross-sectional survey data from 522 acute care registered nurses in British Columbia was analyzed using ordinal logistic regression. Burnout, specifically emotional exhaustion, was consistently predictive of both intent and likelihood to leave the profession and the position. Emotionally exhausted nurses are two times more likely to have intent to leave the profession and 1.5 times more likely to do so. The other factors played a minimal role in explaining turnover.