Assessing the effect of nursing stress factors on turnover intention among newly recruited nurses in hospitals in China

AIM: This study sought to investigate some possible job stress factors that could influence newly recruited nurses’ behaviour to either continue or discontinue their job with their organization. DESIGN: A cross‐sectional study design was adopted for this study. METHOD: Using 654 responses from novice nurses working in 20 county Chinese hospitals, we estimated the effects of six job stressors from the perceived stress scale on the turnover intention with a structural equation model in AMOS version 21 software. RESULTS: The results showed that four stressors, stress from taking care of patients (β = 0.111, p < .01), stress from roles and workload (β = 0.129, p < .001), stress from co‐workers and daily life (β = 0.323, p < .001) and stress from lack of professional knowledge and skills (β = 0.137, p < .001), from the perceived stress scale had a significant impact on turnover intention among nurses.