Analysis of nurses’ intention to resign and its reasons in a tertiary Grade-A hospital in Beijing during the post-pandemic era

Abstract

Background and objective: After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in China in 2023, there has been an increasing number of clinical nurses resigning, which has greatly impacted clinical work. The objective of this study was to understand the reasons for the resignation of clinical nurses in a tertiary Grade-A hospital in Beijing.

Methods: This study was completed in two stages. In the first stage, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 nurses who submitted resignation applications between August 2022 and August 2023 at a tertiary Grade-A hospital in Beijing. The themes identified were analyzed and refined using NVivo 12.0 software. The second stage involved a convenience sampling method for conducting a questionnaire survey on the resignation intentions of 220 clinical nurses in the hospital from September to October 2023.

Results: The results of the first stage research show that the reasons for nurses' resignation can be summarized into four themes: deteriorating team collaboration atmosphere, heavy workload, conflicting family roles, and significant fatigue. The results of the second stage of the research indicated that out of 220 clinical nurses surveyed, 12 nurses reported plans to resign in the upcoming year. And we found that “Do You Have Intention to Resign within One Year” Yes vs No  were statistically different  in terms of commuting time (p = .048), work intensity (p = .049), physical health status (p = .001), reasonableness of work input and income (p = .002), promotion opportunities (p = .046), reward and punishment system (p = .001), and humanistic care (p = .001), and hospital nursing management methods (p = .001).

Conclusions: The poor rationality of work input and income, deteriorating team collaboration atmosphere, and heavy workload may be the main reasons for nurses resigning. Nursing managers need to enhance nurses' salaries and benefits, strengthen hospital humanistic care, create a harmonious team work atmosphere, and emphasize the professional development of nursing talent to ensure the stability of the nursing team, especially during times of epidemic outbreaks.