Urologie pro praxi 2/2018

Nurses' intention to leave the profession

The shortage of healthcare workers is currently considered a serious global problem. This could be further escalated due to the expected demographic changes in the future. Finding a solution how to prevent qualified and experienced nurses from leaving their profession may be critical. Currently available evidence suggests that the main reason for a decision to leave nursing may not only be the level of remuneration or individual characteristics of nurses, but above all a large number of factors affecting the quality of work environment. Those factors influence not only the increasing nursing turnover but also affect negatively the quality of the provided health care. Addressing the quality of the work environment seems to be essential in order to achieve optimal number of health care workers including nurses in the future, as well as to bring the quality of provided care to the optimal level.

Keywords: nurse shortage, work environment, quality of care.