Relationship between Quality of Work Life and Nurses Leave the Profession through Mediation of Nurses' Intention to Leave their Profession

Purpose:

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between quality of work life (QWL), nurses’ intention to leave their profession (ITLpro) and nurses leave the profession and whether nurses’ ITLpro mediated the relationship between QWL and nurses leave the profession.

Methods:

One-year prospective study was conducted using purposive sampling of 1,283 nurses at seven hospitals in Taiwan. Data were collected from March to June 2012 and followed up at March to June 2013. Three questionnaires, including the Chinese version of the Quality of Nursing Work Life scale (C-QNWL), a questionnaire of intention to leave nursing profession and a demographic questionnaire, with two informed consent forms were delivered to the nurses at their workplaces. The records of nurses’ turnover were collected. Descriptive data, chi-square tests, t-tests, binary logistic regression and cumulative logistic regression were analyzed.

Results:

Over half (58.5 %) of nurses had ITLpro. Only 2.5 % nurses actually leave the profession after one year. Nurses’ ITLpro mediated the relationship between “Milieu of respect and autonomy” QWL and nurses leave the profession.

Conclusion:

An independent variable” “milieu of respect and autonomy” QWL predicts the mediator variable “nurses’ ITLpro” and together they predict an outcome variable “nurses leave the profession”.