How career facilitators and barriers influence nurses’ professional turnover intention

Aims Our study investigates the influence of career facilitators and barriers on nurses’ improvement of their professional capabilities and their professional turnover intention. Background Reducing nurses’ professional turnover intention could help alleviate the global nursing shortage. Nevertheless, little research has addressed how career facilitators and barriers, nurses’ improvement of their professional capabilities and professional turnover intention are related, indicating a gap. Design This study used a cross‐sectional design. Methods We surveyed 502 out of 2,660 full‐time nurses who worked for a medical centre in Taiwan between January–March 2018. Our items were adapted from Cunningham et al. and Teng et al. and had adequate reliability and validity. Structural equation modelling was used to test the study hypotheses. Results Human capital, social capital, and discrimination were positively related to intention to improve professional capabilities. Moreover, intention to improve professional capabilities was positively related to action to improve professional capabilities, which was negatively related to professional turnover intention. Conclusion Most of the career facilitators and even barriers, boost the improvement of professional capabilities and are useful for retaining nurses in the nursing profession. Impact Findings of this study should have an impact on nursing managers by offering them means to retain nurses, for example, enhancing human capital and social capital among nurses to reduce their turnover intention. 目的 我们的研究探讨了职业促进因素和障碍对护士专业能力提升和职业转换意愿的影响。 背景 降低护士的职业转换意愿有助于缓解全球护士短缺问题。然而,很少有研究探讨职业促进因素与障碍、护士专业能力的提高与职业转换意愿之间的关系,这说明存在差距。 设计 本研究使用了横向设计。 方法 我们调查了2018年1月至3月期间在台湾一家医疗中心工作的2660名全职护士中的502人。我们的项目由Cunningham等人和Teng等人的研究改编而成,具有足够的信度和效度。结构方程模型用于验证研究假设。 结果 人力资本、社会资本、歧视与提升专业能力的意愿呈正相关。提高专业能力的意愿与提高专业能力的行动呈正相关,与专业离职意愿呈负相关。 结论 大多数的职业促进因素乃至障碍都促进了专业能力的提高,有利于在护理专业留住护士。 影响 本研究的结果应该通过为他们提供留住护士的手段(如提高护士的人力资本和社会资本)来对护理管理者产生影响,以降低护士的离职意愿。