Factors associated with turnover among nurses in Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study wasta examine the factors r~lated to nurses' turnover in Taiwan, the Republiq, of Ghina. Abelson~s (1986) lntegrCllted Turnover a I I ' Process Model, which ass~mes a causal relationship between an-employee's perceptions of indi~idual, organizational, atld environmental factors and that individual's decision to leave thei·r job, provided the theoretical basis for this - r . . study. A retrospective, descriptive correlational study design was-employed. Two h~ndred ar:1d thirty-$eve~ n~wly hi..red registered nurses who nad vo'lu~tarily le~ ~heir last position within the lasj twelve months were chos~n from eight large teac~ing hospitals loqated in the f110St populated areas o.f Taiwan .. A two-part \ questionnaire, an adaptation of--McCios-key's 1974 toolJor studying nursing turnover in the U.~. was used to collect.the da~a. ,A paQel of ~ive experts judged ~ - \, -- ' ' ,.. _.... . tbe final questio,nnaire-to have .conter:1t and translation validity. The Cronbach's alpha reliability score for Part ll_~f the que$tionn~ire us~d in, thi~ st~,Jdy w~s 0.98. Organizational ·level factors considered' most impo~ant when seeking a job were cited by 84.4 percent of t~e respondents. All 45 reward or incentive items in Part II of the questionnaire would have influenced some of the respondents to remain in their last position. Correlation statistics, Pearson r, t-Test, and ·one-way AN OVA were employed to test the relationships between ten selected fndividual, organizational, o~ environmental level variables and . nurses' length of service. Finding$ indicate that there was a significant relationship between length of service and age, marital status, relationship behavior, salary, hospital bed size, and type of hospital (private or public). , - The desire for better financial compensation for their work, opportunities for career advancement through continuing and formal education, more professional recognition from their supervisors, pe·ers, and physicians for their contribution to patient care, and more autonomy in their clinical practice appear to be shared by nurses in the Republic of China and the United States. Recommended approaches based on these findings which will assist administrators in retention as well as recruitment of nurses are presented.