Factors Predicting Intention to Stay of Professional Nurses in Community Hospitals, Nakhonratchasima Province

Abstract

            The purposes of this descriptive research were: (1) to examine the professional nurses’ intention to stay and organizational factors affecting intention to stay of professional nurses in community hospitals, Nakhonratchasima province, and (2) to investigate predictive power of age and organizational factors affecting in intention to stay of professional nurses.

            The total of 192 professional nurses who had been worked at community hospitals throughout NakhonRatchasima province was selected by multi-stage sampling.  The research instruments consisted of three parts: (1) demographic data, (2) factors affecting intention to stay, and (3) intention to stay of professional nurses. All questionnaires were examined for content validity by five experts.  The content validity indexes of  factors affecting intention to stay and intention to stay of professional nurses were .98 and 1 respectively. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients were .96 and .81 respectively. Data were analyzed by using frequency, mean, percentage, standard deviation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis.

            The major findings were as follow.  (1) Professional nurses rated their overall intention to stay and organizational factors at the moderate level, (2) only “jobs and work-life” and age were able to predict intention to stay of professional nurses and both predictors accounted for 34.2 % (R² = 0.342, p < .05).