Which Aspects of Professional Commitment Can Effectively Retain Nurses in the Nursing Profession?

Abstract

Purpose: This study examined which aspects of professional commitment can effectively retain nurses in the nursing profession.

Design, settings, and participants: This study used a longitudinal design, simple random sampling, and two-wave data collection to survey and follow up a representative sample of 579 nurses for 1 year in a major medical center in northern Taiwan.

Methods: Items measuring each aspect of professional commitment came from Meyer et al.'s scale. In the second wave, administrative data were culled to determine whether these nurses remain employed as nurses. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data.

Results: Analytical results indicate that continuance commitment predicts nurse retention in the nursing profession (path coefficient = 0.34, p < .01).

Conclusions: Institutional efforts to improve continuance commitment (e.g., improved salary structures and enhanced professional development opportunities) likely retain nurses in the nursing profession.

Clinical relevance: The findings of this study indicate the importance of continuance intention in retaining nurses. Nursing managers who face staff retention issues may consider making efforts to improve nurse salary and employer-sponsored benefits.

Keywords: Affective commitment; continuance commitment; normative commitment; nurse retention; professional commitment.