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ABSTRACT
Aims: The aim of this study was to examine whether reasons reported in the international "intention to leave nursing" literature match those given by New Zealand nurses who left the profession before retirement age.
Background: Concerns about nursing shortages have produced a rich literature on early nurse retirement. While causes of intention to leave have been reported previously, understanding more about the impact of these could guide retention strategies.
Method: An online survey of nurses who had left the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), citing they were leaving the profession, was conducted in September/October 2016, asking them about the factors leading to their decision, their decision-making processes, and workplace changes that may have helped them remain. Results were analysed by age cohort.
Results: This paper reports results from 459 nurses aged 55-65 who had left nursing before the official retirement age. Issues previously reported in the literature also emerged as factors among this cohort. Key among these were workplace/organisational issues, and personal challenges related to health or burnout. Although reported by small numbers of respondents, previously unreported issues of loss of confidence, over-onerous professional development requirements and intergenerational tensions were also described.
Conclusion: Issues identified in the "intention to leave" literature also figured highly as contributing to New Zealand nurses' decisions to actually leave. Many of these issues relate to the intensification of nursing (higher acuity and bed occupancy), and the need for sufficient nursing resources, flexible management and better support for older nurses.
Implications for nursing management: Retaining, or delaying the retirement of older nurses could lessen impending nursing shortages. Adequate staffing, flexible working conditions, attending to difficulties with shift work requirements, and good nursing leadership to support a positive work culture, are required.
KEYWORDS
Nurses, attrition, early retirement, New Zealand.
INTRODUCTION
There is evidence that nursing has shifted from being a "career for life" to being just one option in a career portfolio, with increasing reports of large numbers of nurses intending to leave the profession. Nursing shortages, caused by the demographic impacts of an ageing workforce and population, and changing workforce patterns, will be compounded if strategies to delay attrition and retirement are not implemented. Understanding why nurses do leave the profession, and what could be done to support them...