THE ROLE OF MORAL DISTRESS AND JOB BURNOUT IN THE PREDICTION OF TURNOVER INTENTION AMONG NURSES

Turnover intention is one of the professional challenges of nurses. The aim of the
present study is investigating the role of moral distress and job burnout in predicting the turnover
intention among nurses.
Materials & Methods: This study is a descriptive-correlation type, the population of this research
included all the Aleshtar hospital nurses (N=60). All of the nurses enrolled into this study, and they
answered to Corley (2001) moral distress questionnaire, Common (1979) et al turnover intention
questionnaire, and Maslach et al (1996) Burnout questionnaire. To analyze the data, we used the
Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analysis simultaneously.
Results: The results showed that there was positive correlation between turnover intention and job
burnout (P<0/05). There was positive and significant correlation between factors of job burnout,
emotional exhaustion (r=0.611), depersonalization (r=0.509) with turnover intention in the level of
P<0.001. There was negative correlation between turnover intention and personal accomplishment(r=-
0.441) in the level of P<0.001. There was not significant correlation between moral distress and job
burnout. Job burnout by itself could predict only %12 of the variable variance of turnover intention.
Conclusion: The results of this study emphasize the importance of the role of job burnout in the turnover
intention among nurses. The related organizations should understand the reasons and factors affecting
the turnover intention of their staffs by using the correct information and predications, and effective
management strategy