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Improving Nurse Retention in the National Health Service in England: The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Intentions to Quit

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  • Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie
  • Shields, Michael

Abstract

In recent years the British National Health Service (NHS) has experienced an acute shortage of qualified nurses. This has placed issues of recruitment and retention in the profession high on the political agenda. In this Paper, we investigate the determinants of job satisfaction for nurses and establish the importance of job satisfaction in determining nurses? intentions to quit the NHS. We find that nurses who report overall dissatisfaction with their jobs have a 65% higher probability of intending to quit than those reporting to be satisfied. However, dissatisfaction with promotion and training opportunities are found to have a stronger impact than workload or pay. Recent policies, which focus heavily on improving the pay of all NHS nurses, will have only limited success unless they are accompanied by improved promotion and training opportunities. Better retention will, in turn, lead to reduced workload.

Suggested Citation

  • Ward-Warmedinger, Melanie & Shields, Michael, 2001. "Improving Nurse Retention in the National Health Service in England: The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Intentions to Quit," CEPR Discussion Papers 2806, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:2806
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nurses; Job satisfaction; Quitting intentions; Principal component analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

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