Aim

Addressing the global nursing shortage is crucial to both national and international public health efforts. This paper aims to highlight the importance of resilience and its impact on primary care nurses' job satisfaction and intentions to quit, especially in the face of current challenges.

Methods

The study utilized a mixed methods design involving nurses in intensive care units of a university hospital in Austria. In the first phase of data collection, qualitative focus group interviews were conducted to gather insights on the current challenges and stressors faced by nursing professionals. Building on relevant literature, a quantitative survey was then administered to all nurses, using scales measuring resilience, intention to quit, and job satisfaction in order to examine the relationships between these variables. In addition, a data structuring of the resilience scale by factors was achieved with the help of confirmatory factor analysis. Subsequently, the correlations of the resilience factors with the other variables were examined by means of an additional correlation, regression and mediation analysis.

Results

The results showed negative correlations with regard to resilience and intention to quit as well as with regard to job satisfaction and intention to quit. In contrast, job satisfaction and resilience correlated significantly positively with each other. The negative correlation between resilience and the intention to quit was confirmed, but only for the factors "goal focus" and "pride and commitment". A closer examination of the two factors and their associated items revealed a connection to both professional identity and organizational identity.

Conclusion

This study provides valuable insights for health care leaders and health care decision makers to effectively lead, develop, and thereby retain primary care nurses. The authors argue that improving resilience and strengthening organizational identity are important influencing factors in increasing job satisfaction and reducing nurses' intention to quit.