How do career barriers and supports impact nurse professional commitment and professional turnover intention?

Abstract

Aims: This study examines how career barriers and supports (i.e., perceived discrimination, lack of advancement, human capital, and social capital) impact affective, normative, and continuance aspects of professional commitment and thus nurses' professional turnover intention.

Background: Professional commitment is known to influence professional turnover intention. However, little is known about how career barriers and supports contribute to professional commitment and reduce professional turnover intention.

Methods: This study adopted a cross-sectional design and a survey to collect representative data in a major hospital in northern Taiwan. We used proportionate random sampling to ensure sample representativeness and obtained 524 responses.

Results: Perceived discrimination and lack of advancement were negatively related to affective professional commitment. Human capital was positively related to affective, normative, and continuance professional commitment. Social capital was positively related to normative professional commitment. All aspects of professional commitment were negatively related to professional turnover intention.

Conclusion: Career barriers and supports have an important influence on professional commitment. Reduced barriers and enhanced support may therefore help reduce nurses' professional turnover intentions.

Implications for nursing management: Nursing managers could aim to lessen career barriers while increasing career support for nurses, helping strengthen nurses' professional commitment and retention.

Keywords: nurse; professional commitment; social cognitive career theory; survey; turnover.