Determinants of Quiet Quitting: The Role of Well-Being, Burnout, and Workplace Toxicity among Nurses (2026)

This study examines the impact of a toxic workplace environment, employee well-being, and burnout on the occurrence of quiet quitting among nurses at a high-intensity specialized hospital. The approach employs social exchange theory, the job demands-resources model, and conservation of resources theory to clarify disengagement as a response to reduce psychological resources. We collected data from 251 clinical nurses who had worked for at least a year and used PLS-SEM to look at the results. Our findings revealed that employee well-being was positively correlated with job satisfaction and instrumental in reducing susceptibility to quiet quitting. Burnout, particularly exhaustion, lowered job satisfaction and served as a catalyst for quiet quitting behaviors. Meanwhile, a toxic workplace environment, even at a low level of exposure, contributed significantly to quiet quitting behaviors. Another key finding was that job satisfaction was neither a significant contributor to nor a mediating variable of quiet quitting. This study further indicated that psychological energy depletion was the immediate driver of quiet quitting, rather than one’s evaluations of job satisfaction. These findings confirm the importance of a more balanced workload redistribution and stronger systems for emotional recovery as strategic initiatives to ensure sustained service quality and patient safety in hospitals.