Relationship Between Quality Of Work Life,Occupational Commitment And Intention To Leave The Profession Among Nurses

BackgroundThe shortage of nurses has been a major problem in the development of China’s health undertaking.In recent years,the turnover rate of nurses is notably rising.It does not only have negative effect on health care quality and nursing team constructing,but also cause some medical cost problems.Therefore,nurses’ turn over has become a focused topic among society.ObjectivesAs the biggest professional group in health-care domain,the stability of nurses’team is very important for China’s health undertaking.This paper is written to analyze the relationship between quality of work life,occupational commitment and intend to leave the profession among nurses,to propose intervention and provide some basis and references for health managers.MethodsA cross-sectional study design was utilized.Data were collected by 3 questionnaires—the Quality of Nursing Work Life Scale,the Occupational Commitment Questionnaire,a Intention-to-leave Questionnaire from nurses working in 5 university affiliated hospitals.All analyses were conducted with SPSS version 20.0 and R 3.4.3.The statistical methods include:descriptive analyses,chi-square tests,binary logistic regression and Mediating effect.ResultIn this study,2247 questionnaires were distributed and 1,512 valid questionnaires were returned.The research sample was mainly female,accounting for 97.20%,age was 30 years old below,accounting for 65.70%,junior professional titles accounted for 86.40%,academic qualifications were mainly undergraduates,accounting for 63.50%.The scores of nurses’ quality of work life and occupational commitment were(165.83±23.51)and(77.58±11.50)respectively.Total 18.10%nurses intent to leave nursing profession.Among the personal characteristics,nine individual variables had a significant effect on nurses’ intention to leave,including age,nursing care,professional title,education,marriage,childbearing status,monthly income,first career choice and health status(P<0.01).There was a negative correlation between nurses’ quality of work and life and intention to leave nursing profession(P<0.01).There was a negative correlation between nurses’occupational commitment and intention to leave nursing profession(P<0.05).There was a positive correlation between nurses’ quality of work life and occupational commitment(P<0.01)..Nurse’ years of working,work-home balance,affective commitment,normative commitment,and opportunity commitment had a significant effect on nurses’ intention to leave(P<0.001).The mediating effect of affective commitment 95%CI was-0.032～-0.020,the mediating effect of normative commitment 95%CI was-0.020～-0.010,the mediating effect of economic cost commitment 95%CI was-0.010～-0.004,the mediating effect of affective cost commitment 95%CI was-0.010～-0.004.Conclusion1.Both of nurses’ quality of work life and occupational commitment are at a medium level,the Intend to leave nursing profession is at a high level.2.There are nine individual variables had a significant effect on nurses’intention to leave,including age,nursing care,professional title,education,marriage,childbearing status,monthly income,first career choice and health stat.3.Negative correlation correlation between the quality of work life and intention to leave,negative correlation between occupational commitment and intention to leave;work-home balance,affective commitment,normative commitment,and opportunity commitment are the main factors affecting the nurses’intention to leave profession.4.Occupational commitment is the mediating variable between the quality of work life and intention to leave.