Association between nursing work environment, burnout, and turnover intention: A cross-sectional study in Greece

Ioannis Moisoglou; Aglaia Katsiroumpa; Evangelos C. Fradelos; Ioanna V. Papathanasiou; Theodosios Paralikas; Ioanna Prasini; Maria Rekleiti; Aggeliki Katsapi; Maria Chatzi; Petros Galanis; Ioannis Moisoglou; Aglaia Katsiroumpa; Evangelos C. Fradelos; Ioanna V. Papathanasiou; Theodosios Paralikas; Ioanna Prasini; Maria Rekleiti; Aggeliki Katsapi; Maria Chatzi; Petros Galanis

doi:10.3934/publichealth.2025054

AIMS Public Health

2025, Volume 12, Issue 4: 1069-1083. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2025054

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Research article Special Issues

Association between nursing work environment, burnout, and turnover intention: A cross-sectional study in Greece

1.
Department of Nursing, University of Thessaly, 41500 Larissa, Greece
2.
Clinical Epidemiology Laboratory, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 11527 Athens, Greece
3.
Home Care Nursing Department, Palliative Care Galilee, 19004 Spata, Greece
4.
Emergency Department, Andreas Syggros Hospital of Cutaneous and Venereal Diseases, 16121 Athens, Greece
5.
Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Quality and Safety in Health Services, 10678 Athens, Greece

Received: 10 July 2025 Revised: 08 October 2025 Accepted: 16 October 2025 Published: 13 November 2025

Background
A nurse's work environment has consistently been the most important factor affecting the emergence of burnout and their choice to resign from their positions.
Objective
This work seeks to investigate the impact of the nursing work environment on job burnout and turnover intentions among nurses.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted during October 2024 in Greece. We employed the “Practice Environment Scale-5” to assess the nursing work environment. Additionally, we used the single item burnout measure to measure job burnout, and the single item turnover intention measure to measure turnover intention among our nurses. We used multivariable regression models to adjust for demographic and job variables.
Results
More than half of the nurses (56.7%) reported a high level of turnover intention. The mean score on the single item burnout measure (7.78) indicated high levels of burnout in our sample. The multivariable linear regression analysis showed that lower levels of staffing and resource adequacy were associated with the increased job burnout (adjusted beta = −0.431, 95% CI = −0.683 to −0.180, p-value = 0.001). Similarly, our multivariable logistic regression model found an independent negative effect of staffing and resource adequacy on the turnover intention (adjusted OR = 0.594, 95% confidence interval = 0.421 to 0.840, p-value = 0.003).
Conclusion
Our multivariable analysis indicated that a diminishing nursing work environment is associated with an increased job burnout and turnover intention. Improving the nursing work environment is essential to reduce the job burnout and turnover intention among nurses.
- work environment,
- job burnout,
- turnover intention,
- nurses,
- Greece
Citation: Ioannis Moisoglou, Aglaia Katsiroumpa, Evangelos C. Fradelos, Ioanna V. Papathanasiou, Theodosios Paralikas, Ioanna Prasini, Maria Rekleiti, Aggeliki Katsapi, Maria Chatzi, Petros Galanis. Association between nursing work environment, burnout, and turnover intention: A cross-sectional study in Greece[J]. AIMS Public Health, 2025, 12(4): 1069-1083. doi: 10.3934/publichealth.2025054

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Abstract

Background

A nurse's work environment has consistently been the most important factor affecting the emergence of burnout and their choice to resign from their positions.

Objective

This work seeks to investigate the impact of the nursing work environment on job burnout and turnover intentions among nurses.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted during October 2024 in Greece. We employed the “Practice Environment Scale-5” to assess the nursing work environment. Additionally, we used the single item burnout measure to measure job burnout, and the single item turnover intention measure to measure turnover intention among our nurses. We used multivariable regression models to adjust for demographic and job variables.

Results

More than half of the nurses (56.7%) reported a high level of turnover intention. The mean score on the single item burnout measure (7.78) indicated high levels of burnout in our sample. The multivariable linear regression analysis showed that lower levels of staffing and resource adequacy were associated with the increased job burnout (adjusted beta = −0.431, 95% CI = −0.683 to −0.180, p-value = 0.001). Similarly, our multivariable logistic regression model found an independent negative effect of staffing and resource adequacy on the turnover intention (adjusted OR = 0.594, 95% confidence interval = 0.421 to 0.840, p-value = 0.003).

Conclusion

Our multivariable analysis indicated that a diminishing nursing work environment is associated with an increased job burnout and turnover intention. Improving the nursing work environment is essential to reduce the job burnout and turnover intention among nurses.

Acknowledgments

This study did not receive any funding.

Authors' contributions

Conceptualization, I.M., A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa) and P.G.; methodology, I.M., A.K. (Aggeliki Katsapi), A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa), T.P., E.C.F., I.V.P. and P.G.; software, P.G., and A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa); validation, I.M., A.K. (Aggeliki Katsapi), A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa), M.R., I.P., E.C.F., I.V.P., M.C. and P.G; formal analysis, A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa) and P.G.; investigation, T.P., E.C.F., M.R., I.M., A.K. (Aggeliki katsapi), I.P., M.C. and A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa); resources, E.C.F., T.P., M.R., I.M., A.K. (Aggeliki katsapi), A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa), I.V.P., M.C. and P.G.; data curation, P.G.; writing—original draft preparation, I.M., A.K. (Aggeliki Katsapi), A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa), T.P., E.C.F., M.R., I.V.P., I.P., M.C. and P.G.; writing—review and editing, I.M., A.K. (Aggeliki Katsapi), A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa), T.P., E.C.F., I.V.P., I.P., M.C., M.R. and P.G; visualization, A.K. (Aglaia Katsiroumpa) and P.G.; supervision, P.G.; project administration, I.M and P.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Conflict of interest

Evangelos C. Fradelos and Petros Galanis are editorial board members of AIMS Public Health, Evangelos C. Fradelos, Petros Galanis, Ioannis Moisoglou and Ioanna V. Papathanasiou are guest editors for its Special Issue. They did not engage in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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