Hospital Policy and Nurse Retention: A Regression Analysis of Caritas Relationships, Organizational Commitment, and Job Embeddedness

Projections of a critical nursing shortage in the United States suggest that traditional strategies to secure employee commitment to organizational agendas and assure nurse retention may be inadequate. This study provides an empirical foundation to analyze nursing shortages, evaluate retention policies, address cost containment issues, and assess patient outcomes in light of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act mandates. The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationships among variables related to retention of nurses, specifically nurse manager-to-nurse and peer-to-peer caritas relationships, organizational commitment, job embeddedness, and intent to stay. Watson's theory of human caring directed this quantitative, correlational survey-based study to identify multiple factors that may affect a nurse's intent to stay employed. Instrumentation for this study was a single, online survey incorporating 5 previously validated questionnaires applicable to the independent and dependent variables. Multiple regression analysis of survey responses of 107 hospital-based RNs employed a multi-factorial framework to guide interpretation of data on nurses' intent to stay. Results showed caritas relationships significantly correlate with intent to stay and remain highly predictive (p < .001) of intent to stay, independent of the other variables, organizational commitment and job embeddedness. The findings demonstrated that when a nurse's caritas-based relationships increased, intent to stay in the workplace rose comparably. An implication for positive social change resulting from this study is that hospitals could retain more nurses by understanding factors that predict a nurse's intent to stay.