Aims: To examine how nurses' self-efficacy impacts professional engagement (professional opportunities exploration and workplace improvement participation), nurses' turnover intention and further on actual turnover.
Background: The problem of nursing shortage has become a common global issue. Nurses' self-efficacy could reduce nurses' turnover intention. However, whether professional engagement could connect nurses' self-efficacy and their actual turnover remains unknown.
Design: This study adopts a three-wave follow-up design.
Methods: This study uses proportionate random sampling to survey nurses in a large medical centre in Taiwan. Totally, 417 participants were enrolled from December 2021 to January 2022 (first wave) and followed up from February 2022 to March 2022 (second wave). The data of nurses' actual turnover (or not) were traced in May 2022 (third wave). STROBE statement was chosen as the EQUATOR checklist.
Results: Self-efficacy was positively linked to outcome expectation, which is positively linked to professional opportunities exploration. Self-efficacy was positively linked to career interest and workplace improvement participation. Professional engagement was negatively linked to nurses' intention to leave the target hospital, which was positively linked to actual turnover.
Conclusion: This study uniquely finds that professional engagement is the key to the mechanism underlying the influence of nurse' self-efficacy on their actual turnover.
Impact: Our findings impact nursing management that professional engagement is as well important as nurses' self-efficacy, with an aim to maintain the professional nursing workforce.
Patient or public contribution: Nurses complete the questionnaires, return them to the investigators and permit investigators to check their personnel data.
Keywords: nurse turnover; nurses; professional engagement; survey; workforce.
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.