Relationship between Professional Commitment and Intention to leave the job among Nurses Working in Intensive Care Units

Professional commitment is one of the factors that can improve performance and job satisfaction in nurses. It can also play an important role in nurses’ willingness to stay in the profession. This study was conducted to determine relationship between professional commitment and the intention to leave the job in nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs).

This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019, on 202 nurses working in the ICUs of hospitals affiliated to the Golestan University of Medical Sciences, northeastern Iran. Eligible nurses were enrolled via census. Data were collected by using the Nurses' Professional Commitment Scale (NPCS) and the Hanshow's Anticipated Turnover Scale (ATS). Data were analyzed in SPSS (version 16) using the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Mann–Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

The mean score of professional commitment (90.40±16.69) and its dimensions had a significant inverse association with intention to leave the job (36.87±4.87) (P<0.05). There was also a significant relationship between professional commitment and age, clinical experience, and work experience in ICUs (P<0.05). However, the intention to leave the job had a significant inverse relationship only with clinical work experience (P<0.05).

According to the results, necessary measures should be taken by healthcare policy makers and hospital managers to reduce the turnover intention rate among nurses. Officials can increase the nurses’ job satisfaction by considering the factors that promote professional commitment and by incorporating incentive systems to encourage nurses to remain in the profession.