Factors Associated With Newly Graduated Nurses' Intent to Leave Current Position in U.S. Acute Care Hospitals: A Descriptive Research Study Using Secondary Data Analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the individual, unit-based, and hospital-based characteristics correlated with new nurse intent to leave their current positions (ITLcp) in U.S. acute care hospitals. For more than forty years, new nurses have experienced difficulty adjusting to their professional role. Poor transitions from academia to practice have resulted in significant financial drains on hospitals while causing physical and emotional symptoms for new nurses. It has been suggested that new nurses need 2-3 years of experience to become competent, and yet, many dissatisfied new nurses leave their positions within the first two years, and some leave nursing altogether. Given predictions of a serious shortage of professional nurses, it is imperative to address factors associated with negative transitional outcomes. This secondary data analysis used cross-sectional survey data from nurses with less than two years of professional tenure from the 2012 National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators TM (NDNQI ®) RN Survey with Job Satisfaction Scales and NDNQI patient census and staffing data (N = 8343). The data were analyzed using three-level hierarchical linear modeling to identify factors that were significantly correlated with ITLcp in new nurses. Two unit-based factors, unit-type and the nurse-nurse relationship were associated with new nurse ITLcp. New nurses working on adult medical surgical units had comparatively higher ITLcp than their peers in neonatal, pediatrics, or critical care units. Several individual factors were significantly correlated with higher ITLcp including younger age, male gender, longer tenure on unit, night shift, lower job satisfaction scores, lower perception of quality of care, and inadequate orientation. Hospital based factors of Magnet status, hospital size, and teaching status were not correlated with ITL-cp in this sample. This study offers a conceptual model of factors associated with new nurses job intention. The model can be applied to new nurse transition programs.