J Korean Acad Nurs Adm.  2022 Dec;28(5):534-544. 10.11111/jkana.2022.28.5.534.

Relationship of Job Stress to Turnover Intention in Hospital Nurses of Rural Areas: Job Embeddedness as a Mediator

• Kang EH
• Seo IS

• KMID: 2538918
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.11111/jkana.2022.28.5.534

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between job stress and turnover intention and the mediating effect of job embeddedness on the relationship among hospital nurses in rural areas.
Methods
This is a descriptive study. A total of 277 registered nurses were enrolled in the study from three hospitals in rural areas of South Korea from April 29 to May 10, 2019. The participants completed self-reporting questionnaires, which measured job stress, turnover intention, and job embeddedness, and collected demographic information. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0, for multiple regression, and a simple mediation model applying the Hayes PROCESS macro with a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval (5,000 bootstrap resampling).
Results
Job stress had a direct effect (c’=0.35, p<.001) on turnover intention. It was also demonstrated that job embeddedness partially mediated the relationship between job stress and turnover intention among the hospital nurses (a ․ b=-0.40 × -0.58=0.23, 95% Boot C).
Conclusion
The job stress and turnover intention of nurses in rural areas are not higher than those in large cities. Nevertheless, hospital administrators need to provide a nursing workforce policy to increase job embeddedness and reduce nurses’ turnover intention.

Keyword

Nurses; Job stress; Job embeddedness; Turnover intention