The Impact of career plateau on Job satisfaction and turnover intention of Hospital nurses

This study was designed to survey the degrees of career plateau, job satisfaction, and turnover intention of hospital nurses, as well as to identify the relationship among them. We surveyed 239 nurses working at five different hospitals in J city and C city. Data collection was conducted between April 1 and April 30, 2016. The data was analyzed using SPSS 23.0. This study shows that the significant factors influencing job satisfaction were content plateau and structural plateau, which account for 55.0% of the variance. It also shows that the significant factors that influence turnover intention were structural plateau, present clinical career, content plateau, and working department, which account for 43.0% of the variance. As such, we identified that a decrease in the content plateau of hospital nurses enhances job satisfaction and that a decrease in structural plateau reduces turnover intention. The results indicate that a systematic managerial strategy for nursing resources should be developed and applied in the nursing field. This strategy should supplement the content plateau by job redesign and job enrichment. In addition, to increase retention of skilled nurses and to achieve superior organizational performance, as well as to contribute to the success of hospital nurses, supplementation of the structural plateau by adopting and applying a career ladder system is important.