Evaluating Reasons for Nursing Turnover

Data from a study of nursing turnover are used to compare findings based on two techniques for evaluating the reasons for resignations within the same population of hospital nurses during one year. The techniques are: (1) exit interviews, in which resigning nurses were asked to report in an open-ended format their major reasons for leaving their jobs; and (2) a prospective panel study, in which nurses who resigned are compared with nurses who remained, and actual turnover is predicted. Results show that due to the absence of a comparison group of remaining nurses and of baseline data, causal inferences based on exit interview data alone are overly simplistic and misleading for management purposes. Results of the panel study are more informative, although implications for hospital management are more complex. Use of the prospective panel design is recommended for hospitals concerned with evaluating nursing job conditions during a period of high turnover and staff nurse shortages.