Abstract:
This research was a quantitative research study designed to analyze the association between the personal characteristics, organization characteristics, job stress issues, and job satisfaction with intention to leave professional nursing. The sample group was composed of 295 professional nurses from Bangkok Metropolitan Administration hospitals. Random sampling was selected to collect data. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. 277 (93.89%) questionnaires were completed and used for data analysis. Data were analyzed through the application of descriptive statistics with Pearsons product moment correlation coefficient and mutiple regression analysis. Results found that age, work experience of nurses, break periods during working hours at the hospital had a low level negative association with intention to leave the nursing career. Job stress had a positive association with intention to leave (r=0.119, p-value=0.047). Job satisfaction had a negative association with intention to leave(r=-0.461, p-value < 0.001). Job stress and job satisfaction of professional nurses could explain the varianceof 22.40% (Adjusted R2=0.224) of intention to leave professional nursing in Bangkok Metropolitan Administration hospitals. According to this research, administrators should set guidelines or provide professional nurses with opportunities to develop themselves in terms of working skills, learn new ways of performing tasks, participate in decision making and setting policies that affect their work performance, encourage the chiefs to have good relationships with professional nurses at the operation level, and establish roles to support the work of professional nurses at the operational level.