LAUSR

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim of the study is to examine nurses´ job involvement and intentions to continue in their current position. BACKGROUND Globally, the supply of nurses fails to meet the labor markets´ high demand. Compared to specialist health service, the community health service has the greatest challenge when it comes to nursing shortage. There is a lack of studies comparing nurses working in different parts of the healthcare system in research focusing on nurses´ intentions to continue in their current position. Similarly, there has been relatively little research on nurses´ job involvement, even less how it is associated with retaining the nurses, despite indications that job involvement may be the key to job-related motivated behavior. DESIGN A descriptive comparative study with a cross-sectional design. METHODS The study comprises 297 nurses from the community- and specialist health service respectively. The relationships between nurses´ intention to continue and participant characteristics were examined using binary logistic regression. Reporting followed the STROBE guidelines. RESULTS Nurses in the community health service are older, have more children under the age of 18 and hold more permanent positions than nurses in the specialist health service. Job involvement is the only variable associated with nurses´ intention to continue in their current position regardless of whether the nurse works in the community- or specialist health service. CONCLUSION The results indicate that the community health service has the same possibilities as the specialist health service to retain nurses in their current jobs. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The results indicate that nursing leaders/employers with a goal to retaining nurses are recommended to focus on improving the nurses´ job involvement.