The impact of self-reported burnout and work-related quality of life on nurses’ intention to leave the profession during the COVID-19 pandemic; a cross-sectional study

The challenges of maintaining an effective and sustainable healthcare workforce include the recruitment and retention of appropriately skilled nurses. COVID-19 exacerbated these challenges but they still persist beyond the pandemic. This study explored the impact of work-related quality of life and burnout on reported intentions to leave a variety of healthcare professions including nursing. This cross-sectional study collected data at five time-points from November 2020 to February 2023 via an online survey. The validated measures used included the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory and Work-Related Quality of Life (WRQoL) scale; with subscales for Job-Career Satisfaction General Wellbeing, Control at work, Stress at work, Working conditions and Home-work interface. Findings show that 47.6% of nursing respondents (n=1780) had considered changing their profession throughout the study period, with the 30–39-year age group most likely to express intentions to leave. Regression analysis revealed that for WRQoL, lower general wellbeing and job-career satisfaction scores predicted intentions to leave when controlling for demographic variables (p<.001). When burnout was added to the regression model, both work-related and client-related burnout were predictive of intentions to leave (p<.001). These findings highlight that significant numbers of nurses considered leaving their profession during and shortly after the pandemic and the need for interventions to improve nurses’ wellbeing and reduce burnout to improve their retention.