A Review: The relationship between nurses’ intention to stay and organizational factors in special care units of teaching hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2016 Download PDF

Background: Various studies have demonstrated that the intention to stay in the workplace and also employee retention are important and challenging topics in nursing management. Objectives: The present study aims to calculate the score of nurses’ intention to stay in special care units (SCUs) and determine its relationship to some organizational factors in SCUs in teaching hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS) in 2016. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was both descriptive and analytical. It was conducted by census sampling on 339 SCU nurses in six IUMS teaching hospitals. The data collection tool was a questionnaire with three sections. The first section aimed to gather demographic data and job information. The second section included items on the intention to stay. The third section consisted of items about six categories of organizational factors. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 20 program, descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman correlation test, and regression analysis. Results: Only 34.8% of the nurses intended to retain their current job status in the SCU for the next five years. The Pearson correlation coefficient revealed that the score of the nurses’ intention to stay was directly associated with scores of all the organizational factors. The multiple linear regression analysis indicated that, from among the organizational factors, SCU characteristics and the availability of a safe work environment had the closest association with the intention to stay. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the nurses’ intention to stay in SCUs had a direct and positive relationship to the organizational factors. Therefore, in order to improve SCU nurses’ intention to stay, it is presumably better to consider these factors in SCUs. It is particularly better to hold nurses in high esteem, reward them, support new employees, offer managerial support, tailor duties to skills, distribute workloads proportionately, eliminate discrimination in the workplace, and strike a balance between personal and professional lives.