![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to examine stressors affecting nurses decisions about work migration
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify strategies to improve retention of nurses who are considering migrating for work
Purpose: Migration of nurses continues to concern global nursing leaders in this time of nursing shortage (Kingma,2008). The purpose of this study was to examine factors influencing nurse migration in a sample of Canadian nurses in an attempt to determine what influenced their decisions about working in Ontario or Michigan. Design: This was a cross-sectional, exploratory study conducted with nurses living in Ontario who either worked in Ontario or commuted daily to Michigan. Methods: Nurses were recruited through the nursing registries in Ontario and Michigan and completed a mailed questionnaire exploring several selected stressors, including staffing adequacy, safety, commute strain, time-based work interference with family life, strain-based work interference with family life, and a range of demographic variables. Findings: Logistic regression was used and all five predictors were statistically significant (p < .001), indicating that they reliably distinguished between nurses working in Ontario and Michigan. Individually, commute strain, safety, and time-based work interference with family life were identified as reliable predictors of working in either Ontario or Michigan. Conclusions: Understanding nursing stressors is critical for providing healthy work environments and promoting well-being of nurses. In this study these factors were reliable predictors of whether a nurse worked in Ontario or Michigan. Global nursing leaders should incorporate knowledge of stressors experienced by nurses if they hope to keep pace with the demands of nurses considering moving from their home countries for better opportunities. Further, nurse recruitment and retention efforts are critical in response to the projected nursing shortage and must be tailored to the specific needs and values of nurses working within each system. Focusing on these stressor variables has the potential to enhance healthy work environments for nurses, aid in recruitment and retention, and support the provision of safe health care.