Pre-employment health lifestyle profiles and actual turnover among newly graduated nurses: A descriptive and prospective longitudinal study

Abstract Background Newly graduated nurses’ pre-employment health lifestyles play particularly important roles in their smooth adaptation to and retention in clinical nursing; however, the longitudinal relationship between pre-employment health lifestyles and work outcomes, such as turnover, remains underexamined. To identify the health lifestyle profiles of specific populations of interest, recent studies have employed multifaceted approaches using health behaviors and/or statuses. Objectives To identify the pre-employment health lifestyle profiles of newly graduated nurses, and to examine the longitudinal relationships between health lifestyle profiles and actual turnover. Design Descriptive and prospective longitudinal study design. Settings One tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea. Participants A total of 464 newly graduated nurses who started work between September 2014 and December 2015. Methods The outcome was actual turnover—whether participants had resigned from the organization and the days they worked up to December 31, 2017. We measured eight health lifestyle variables on the first day of orientation before ward placement (i.e., at baseline): quantity and quality of sleep, eating three meals a day, having a regular diet, alcohol consumption, moderate exercise, depression, and self-rated health. We employed latent class analysis to identify the health lifestyle profiles of new nurses, and used Cox proportional hazards regression to examine the longitudinal relationships between health lifestyle profiles and actual turnover. Results We classified newly graduated nurses’ pre-employment health lifestyle profiles into two groups: unhealthy lifestyle (15.6%) and discordant (84.4%). Compared with the new nurses in the discordant group, those in the unhealthy lifestyle group had significantly higher probabilities of resigning (HR = 2.38, 95% CIs of HR = 1.62–3.50); this relationship remained significant after adjusting for perceived job stress at six weeks of work (HR = 2.26, 95% CIs of HR = 1.50–3.39). Conclusions This study identified significant differences in the patterns of newly graduated nurses’ pre-employment health lifestyles; our analysis showed that classification in the unhealthy lifestyle group was a turnover risk factor. Given that new nurses’ health lifestyles affect work outcomes, hospitals should implement organizational and educational initiatives to encourage healthy lifestyles. In considering pre-employment health lifestyle profiles, hospitals should also monitor novice nurses’ adaptation and wellness. Nursing education should include strategies to enhance nursing students’ own health. Further extensive longitudinal studies should seek to identify the health lifestyle profiles of heterogeneous nurse populations.