Intention to Leave Nursing Profession and Its Associated Factors Among Nurses: A Facility Based Cross-Sectional Study

Nurses’ intention of leaving their profession is the main challenge for healthcare and hospital administrators in many countries. It has significant impact on the performance, stability and productivity of health facilities. However, there is limited evidence on the nurses’ intention to leave their profession and associated factors among nurses in developing countries including Ethiopia. This study was aimed to assess intention to leave nursing profession and its associated factors among nurses working in West Shoa Zone public Hospitals, Oromia region, Central Ethiopia, 2020. Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted among 393 nurses working in West Shoa zone public hospitals, Ethiopia from May 1 to 30, 2020. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Structured self- administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were cleaned and entered into Epi-data version 3.1 then exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequency mean and standard deviation was computed to describe variables of the study. All covariates that were significant at P value <0.25 in bivariate logistic regression analysis were considered for further multivariable logistic regression analysis. Backward stepwise logistic regression model was fitted, crude ratio and odds ratio were calculated for factors at 95% confidence interval (CI). Level of statistical significance was declared at P value <0.05. In this study, the overall nurses’ intention to leave nursing profession was 61.3% [95% CI (56.5%, 66.2%)]. Nurses’ educational status, age, working experience, working position, professional commitment, job stress, job satisfaction and organizational factor were significantly associated with nurses’ intention to leave their profession. The overall nurses’ intention to leave their profession was high. Reducing this level of leaving intention needs collaborative intervention related to factors like safety of working environment, job related stress, job satisfaction, professional commitment and education opportunities which are a big homework for managers on health sectors of West Shoa zone public Hospitals and higher level health sector managers.