Effects of Resilience and Personal Accomplishment on the Relationship Between Quality of Work Life and Turnover Intention Among Newly Employed Nurses.

Abstract

Background: Turnover among newly employed nurses is an indicator of workforce stability in healthcare organizations. The factors influencing turnover intention in this group are complex and differ by generation. The relationships among variables including work-life quality, personal accomplishment, resilience, and turnover intention have been explored separately. However, a knowledge gap exists in terms of scholarly understanding regarding the respective impacts of perceived personal accomplishment and resilience on the relationship between work-life quality and turnover intention.

Purpose: This study was designed to explore the respective effects of resilience and personal accomplishment on the relationship between work-life quality and turnover intention.

Methods: A cross-sectional approach was used, and 387 newly employed nurses who had worked for just 1 month at six medical centers in Taiwan were enrolled as participants. The following four instruments were used for data collection: Quality of Nurse Work-life Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, the personal accomplishment subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and Turnover Intention Scale. Hayes PROCESS analysis method was used to analyze the influence of resilience and personal accomplishment on the relationship between work-life quality and turnover intention.

Results: There was a positive correlation among work-life quality, resilience, and personal accomplishment, and a negative correlation was found between all three variables and turnover intention. Resilience was found to negatively mediate the relationship between work-life quality and turnover intention (B = -.032, p < .001). The moderating effect of work-life quality on personal accomplishment was significant (B = .012, p < .05). Work-life quality and sense of personal accomplishment explained 61% of the variance in resilience. Work-life quality and resilience explained 50.5% of the variance in turnover intention. Furthermore, sense of personal accomplishment moderated the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between work-life quality and turnover intention.

Conclusions/implications for practice: Resilience mediates the relationship between work-life quality and turnover intention, whereas personal accomplishment may moderate the mediating effect of resilience in the relationship. Administrators should provide strategies to improve professional competence and improve psychological capacity in new nurses to increase their sense of personal accomplishment and resilience to decrease turnover intention.