FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO NURSE INTENT TO REMAIN IN THE PRESENT EMPLOYMENT, WITH INSERVICE EDUCATION IMPLICATIONS.
Contributors: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 209
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Administration.; Education, Adult and Continuing.; Health Sciences, Education.
Description: This study was a descriptive research project, whose primary purpose was to test the explanatory power of a causal model of staff nurse intent to remain in their present employment in a large teaching medical center. A second purpose was to determine how head nurses would respond to a management education intervention in which they were given aggregate data on staff nurses' preceptions collected from their units' RN staff. A questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 423 RN staff nurses and two questionnaires were used to collect data from a sample of 25 head nurses. The research model contained eight independent variables, and two intervening variables (job satisfaction and organizational commitment), in addition to the final dependent variable, intent to remain.

Results of the staff nurse data collection revealed that influence of important others, job satisfaction, autonomy, and managerial environment were the four most important determinants of intent to remain, by direct effects and total effects. The model explained 42% of the variance in intent to remain, 57% of the variance in job satisfaction, and 20% of the variance in organizational commitment.

The management education intervention consisted of two parts: (1) an individualized document containing graphs of unit results and a narrative which explained how to read the data, and (2) a one-day management seminar for head nurses to discuss the data and begin action plans for improvements. Quantitative and qualitative results immediately following the intervention indicated acceptance of the data and receptivity of the opportunity to plan together, provided by the seminar atmosphere.

Six months after the seminar, survey responses were gathered from all head nurses who attended the seminar and were still employed in their positions. During the six-month interval dramatic changes had occurred in the organizational environment. Despite this, 95% of head nurses rated the management education intervention at the highest or second highest level of importance. All had shared the information with their staff and many unit goals and actions taken were described, although it was impossible to atttribute specific changes to the management education intervention alone. The majority of head nurses were interested in resurveying the staff a year after the first survey took place. ftn*Originally published in DAI vol. 53, no. 11. Reprinted here with correct text.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-12, Section: B, page: 5286.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL, 1992.

School code: 0153.