Organizational Climate, Burnout and Retention of Professional Nurses in a Private Hospital Chain in Bangkok

Abstract

           The purpose of this study was to investigate organizational climate levels, burnout levels, and professional nurse retention levels, and the influence of all factors on professional nurse retention in a private hospital chain in Bangkok. This descriptive study included a sample of 209 professional nurses chosen using the stratified sampling method from a total of 415 professional nurses who had worked as full-time nurses in a private hospital chain for at least one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire on personal factors, organizational climate, burnout, and retention was used to collect data, with reliability values ranging from 0.78 to 0.91. The descriptive statistics and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data.

           The findings revealed that among all respondents, they had a high level of organizational climate, a moderate level of emotional exhaustion, a low level of depersonalization, a high level of personal achievement, and a moderate level of retention, factors influencing their retention consisted five factors; job experience, being part of the organization and relationships had positive influence, but depersonalization and emotional exhaustion had negative influence on the retention; all of these factors could predict 36% variance of the retention scores.

            To maintain professional nurses' long job tenure in the organization, the study recommended that administrators find ways to reduce burnout levels, encourage personnel to recognize the impor- tance of client care, and make them feel like a valuable part of the organization, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.