CAUSES OF HOSPITAL CLINICAL PRACTICE DROPOUT IN NURSING

Abstract

In Chilean hospitals nurses tend to drop out of their hospital clinical practice at an early stage of their professional life. This affects the patient care. Objective: to define the variables associated with nurses resignation to clinical practice in the Region Metropolitana (Metropolitan Region). Materials and method: 1,000 surveys were sent via e- mail to nurses in the Metropolitan Region of Chile, 164 responses were obtained from nurses who had left their clinical practice and 75 from nurses who were still in clinical practice. Results: The main causes of nurses' dropout from clinical practice were: the shift system, wages and weak organizational recognition. Regarding retention factors in clinical practice, vocation appears as the main reason. Conclusions: The proposed preliminary predictive model allows predicting the probability of a nurse leaving their clinical practice. Dissatisfaction with organizational elements leads to dropping out. This study may be a contribution to health management.