Role conflict and role ambiguity as predictors of turnover intention among nurses

Turnover intention, the nursing profession, is one of the major challenges for the nursing staff around the world that leads to reduce work motivation and poor quality of care.

The aim of this study is to determine relationship among role conflict, role ambiguity, and the turnover intention the nursing at hospitals of the Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2018, Iran. Setting and Design: A cross‑sectional survey was conducted at five hospitals of Qom Medical Science University.

Two hundred and sixteen nurses included to the study using the simple random sampling a three part questionnaire asking for information on demographic characteristics, role conflict and role ambiguity, and nurses’ turnover intention was used as a data gathering tool. Statistical Analysis Used: Date were analyzed using the univariate and multivariate logistic regression.

48.8% of nurses intended to leave their profession. In a univariate logistic regression model, it was found that role conflict, role ambiguity, being single, and working overtime increased nursing staff turnover intention. Furthermore, increase in age, work experiences, official recruitment, and a fixed morning shift decreased nurses’ turnover intention. In multivariate logistic regression model, only role conflict and role ambiguity were significantly associated with turnover intention the nursing profession.

Based on the findings, role conflict and role ambiguity can predict nursing staff turnover intention. Therefore further attention to occupational variables seems to be necessary to reduce high nursing staff turnover intention.