Evaluation of the relationship between organizational stress level of nurses and their intention to leave

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between nurses' organizational stress level and intention to leave their jobs. The study was conducted with 283 nurses selected in a stratified sample from 1075 nurses working in four public hospitals in Trabzon. The data were collected by using the information form about the demographic characteristics and professional views of the nurses, and the Scale of Organizational Stress Sources and Intention to Leave the Job. In the study, 42% of the nurses working in public hospitals were between the ages of 31-40, 69.3% were bachelors and 47.3% had 10 years or less professional experience. Although there was no statistically significant relationship between nurses' organizational stress sources and organizational stress dimension and intention to leave scores, a positively oriented significant relationship was found between organizational discomfort and intention toleave job (r=0.358; p<0.05). The organizational stress source score of the nurses was 88.04±14.03, their organizational stress score was 2.67±13.68, and organizational discomfort score was 82.60±24.54. The intention to leave job score was 2.32±1.11. Regarding those who were employed as nurses, did not choose nursing willingly, were not satisfied with nursing, the hospital and the unit they worked in, recently experienced a lot of stress due to an event, that their organizational discomfort scores and intention to leave job scores were higher was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). In addition, in a training and research hospital with 20 years and less professional experience and 10 years and less hospital experience, that the intention to leave job scores of the nurses working on shift and shifts were high was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05). As a result, the moderate discomfort of nurses regarding stress sources increases their intention to leave their job, which is at a low level. Besides, some of the demographic and professional characteristics of nurses have a negative impact on organizational discomfort and their intention to leave their jobs. Therefore, studies should be started to improve the factors affecting the stress level and intention to leave job of nurses in public hospitals.