Testing a model of Thai nurses’ intent to stay in employment

Abstract

Aim: To test the causal model of intent to stay in employment of nurses in regional medical centers. Background: Effectiveness and quality of nursing care are determined by an adequate number of nursing staff; however, there is an ongoing challenge of nursing shortage. Improving nurses’ intention to remain in employment is an effective way to address the problem of nursing shortage. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design. The sample was 1224 registered nurses from nine regional medical centers across Thailand, selected using multistage random sampling. Data were collected between January and July 2019 and analyzed with structural equation modeling. Results and discussion: The final model could explain 40.3% of the variance in intent to stay. Transformational leadership, coworker support, professional autonomy, opportunities for promotion, marital status, and job satisfaction positively affected intent to stay, while burnout negatively affected intent to stay. This indicates that seven factors that should be considered by nurse managers in developing a framework for constructing interventions to increase nurses’ intention to continue working in their organization. Implication for nursing and nursing policy: Nurse managers should strengthen the intent to stay of nurses by providing consultations, building a positive work atmosphere, and encouraging nurse leaders to apply transformational leadership behaviors to the organizational administration. Policymakers should consider enacting policies and regulations for nurses’ benefits, such as allocating civil servant positions to temporary nursing staff, expanding the framework of career advancement to a senior professional position, and considering salary and overtime pay, to increase nurses’ intent to stay in an organization.