Factors Associated With Retention of Nurses: Phase I Instrument Testing

Although there are regional variations, a shortage of qualified nurses to provide health care services exists. Retention of existing workers has become progressively more important as hospitals compete for the shrinking pool of registered nurses. While there are issues common to all hospitals, unique issues in recruitment and retention plague the Navy. The Navy must also be concerned about the broader issues specific for the nonmilitary nurse market since civil service nurses supplement Navy nurses in many hospitals. As the shortage escalates, examining nursing workforce needs and retention strategies for both military and civil service is imperative. The proposed study is a Phase I Instrument study designed to perform a psychometric assessment of the Price and Mueller retention instrument. Data was collected at three military facilities. The sample consisted of Navy Nurses, Ensign through Lieutenant Commander, and civil service nurses, GS-9 through GS-12, employed at Navy facilities. There were 496 usable surveys returned for a 42% response rate. Content validity index for the instrument was .88 and the reliability for all constructs ranged from .50 to .88. Construct validity analysis, using correlation procedures and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), was used to test validity. The CFA analysis suggested adequate model fit when all concepts were included in one measurement model [χ2 (1973) = 4195.063, χ2 /df = 2.13, RMSEA = .055, NFI = .905, CFI = .947, GFI = .748]. The instrument is reliable and valid when administered to a sample of military and civil service nurses. The findings supported the instrument's potential for measuring job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intent to stay. These findings will be useful for developing future research studies in the nurse retention area and interventions to increase retention of both groups.

Final report is available on NTRL: https://ntrl.ntis.gov/NTRL/dashboard/searchResults/titleDetail/PB2007114...