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Burnout and pay satisfaction were associated with intention to leave the profession; however, overall compensation dollar amount was not correlated with intention to leave. Approaches to nurse retention should employ a multifaceted approach to effectively enhance retention rates.
Keywords: Work-related burnout, nursing shortage, work rewards, staff retention, pay satisfaction.
Nurses are essential to the delivery of effective patient care and vital to optimal patient outcomes. However, the delivery of effective nursing care is jeopardized by a severe global nursing labor shortage exacerbated by an aging nursing workforce, nurse attrition prior to typical retirement age, and escalating patient complexity in an aging population (Buchan et al., 2022). In the United States alone, over one million new nurses will need to enter the nursing workforce by 2029 to meet the health needs of an aging population, replace nurses who plan to retire, and compensate for premature nurse attrition from the workforce (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2022). Without enough nurses, acute care hospital inpatient units are understaffed, which is associated with adverse patient outcomes (Kiekkas et al., 2019). Retaining nurses with experience is important to prevent care rationing, incomplete patient care, and increased adverse patient outcomes, which can be costly for health care institutions (Griffiths et al., 2021; Papastavrou et al., 2014; Tubbs-Cooley et al., 2019).
Given the many contributing factors to the nursing shortage, nurses need to be aware of the relationship processes responsible for staffing issues if they are to continue to provide the effective care needed to improve health outcomes. Access to alternative opportunities to nursing may influence nurse retention. However, it is unclear how nurses contextualize their own economic opportunities and needs in relation to their intention to stay in or leave their current positions and the profession. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine relationships between work-related burnout, intention to leave both the current position and the profession, and access to individual and household work rewards that may contribute to work retention, such as compensation, benefits, and student debt burdens.
Background
Burnout and Intention to Leave
Work-related burnout, a syndrome of exhaustion, cynicism, and disconnection from the workplace, is associated with attrition from both nursing positions and the profession prior to retirement (Sasso et al., 2019). Prior...