Job satisfaction and leaving intentions of Slovak and Czech nurses

GURKOVa E., SOSOVa M.S., HAROKOVa S., ZIAKOVa K., SERFELOVa R. & ZAMBORIOVa M. (2013) Job satisfaction and leaving intentions of Slovak and Czech nurses. International Nursing Review60, 112121 Introduction: Shortages of healthcare workers in Czech and Slovak Republics are associated with factors such as raised migration of professional nurses, decreased number of nurse graduates and ageing workforce. The specific problem is migration of Slovak nurses to the Czech Republic, motivated by higher salaries. Aim: The study aims to investigate the relationship between turnover intentions and job satisfaction among Czech and Slovak nurses and to determine how the related variables differ between the two groups. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was used to investigate the intended turnover and job satisfaction relationship among 1055 hospital nurses recruited from the Czech and Slovak Republics. Methods: Data were collected using a set of questionnaires that included questions regarding leaving intentions of nurses and The McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale; three further sets of questionnaires were used. For determining the associations between variables, the Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses were used. For group comparisons, one-way and multifactorial analysis of variance and Pearson's Chi-square test procedure were performed. Findings: The intention to leave the workplace, the nursing profession and work abroad were predicted by the levels of satisfaction of nurses with their control/responsibility and scheduling. Czech nurses reported higher satisfaction in all subscales of the job satisfaction and less frequent intention to work abroad. An inverse relationship was confirmed between age and turnover intentions. Job satisfaction was positively associated with age and years of experience. Job satisfaction differed by all of three turnover intentions. Conclusion: Results highlight the importance of understanding nurses' leaving intentions and related factors and their impact on nurses' lives in both countries so that health care organizations can implement effective strategies to improve the retention of their nursing workforce.