Antecedents of the expectation of remaining in nursing until retirement age

Aims To identify job‐related resources which strengthen nurses' expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement age. Background The dramatic shortage of qualified nurses in industrialized countries makes it necessary to take steps to retain nurses at work at all career stages. The study introduces to the nursing literature the construct ‘expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement age’ as an early indicator of attitudes responsible for employees leaving the job prematurely. Design Longitudinal questionnaire survey. Methods In 2010, a longitudinal study was carried out and data were collected from 387 nurses aged 21–63 years. To ensure predictive validity, the dependent variable was assessed again in 2011 after a time lag of 6 months. Data were analysed applying multiple regression analyses. Findings The expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement age is positively related to work‐time control, role clarity and colleague support. Supervisor support exerts an indirect effect via job resources. Vitality partially mediates the relationship between job resources and the expectation of remaining in the same job until retirement age. Most importantly, as hypothesized, the analysed relationships are different for younger (50 years) nurses. Conclusion Our findings suggest that interventions that seek to retain nurses should promote different job resources along the working life span to strengthen nurses' vitality in all age groups. Future research should apply age‐differentiated measures to unveil work conditions that improve the retention of nurses.