Influence of psychological empowerment on turnover intention among intensive care unit nurses

Abstract

Objective To understand the status of psychological empowerment and turnover intention among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses and analyze the influence of psychological empowerment on turnover intention. Methods We selected 650 ICU nurses from five ClassⅢ Grade A hospitals in Zhengzhou City as subjects by convenience sampling. The psychological empowerment and turnover intention of ICU nurses were investigated with the general information questionnaire, Chinese version of Psychological Empowerment Scale (PES) and Turnover Intention Questionnaire. The SPSS 17.0 was used to statistical analysis. Pearson correlation was used to analyze the correlation between psychological empowerment and turnover intention of ICU nurses, and multiple linear regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of turnover intention of ICU nurses. Results A total of 650 questionnaires were sent out and 635 valid questionnaires were collected with 97.7% for the valid recovery rate. The total score of psychological empowerment and turnover intention was (44.66±7.36) and (15.03±3.40) respectively. Pearson correlation showed that psychological empowerment of ICU nurses had a negative correlation with turnover intention (r=-0.353, P<0.05) . Multiple linear regression analysis displayed that the main influencing factors of turnover intention of ICU nurses included whether to teach or not, the dimension of work meaning and work impact in PES (P<0.01) . Conclusions ICU nurses have a medium level of psychological empowerment with strong turnover intention. Nursing managers should provide targeted intervention according to the status psychological empowerment of ICU nurses to improve the level of psychological empowerment, so as to reduce the turnover intention of them. Key words: Nurses; Intensive Care Units; Psychological empowerment; Turnover intention