The findings showed that 65.5% of the respondents had intentions to leave the hospitals. This result is higher than those of studies conducted at the University of Gondar referral hospital on health professionals, 52.5% [17] and nurses working at governmental healthcare institutions of East Gojjam Zone, 59.4% [21]. Additionally, our finding is much higher than those of studies conducted among health workers in Tanzania (18.8%), Malawi (26.5%), and South Africa 41.4% [15]. These differences could be due to variations in health institution infrastructures, study settings and participants regard to nurses alone.
However, it is lower than the result of studies done among health professionals at Sidama zone public health facilities (84.3%) as well as Yirgalem and Hawassa referral hospitals (83.7%) [15, 22]. This discrepancy could have resulted from differences in the infrastructures of the health institutions, study areas, and study participants that might have affected intentions to leave.
Our finding shows that LPs dissatisfied with payments and benefits were 3.89 more intended to leave their hospital compared to their counterparts. This finding is consistent with the result of other similar studies conducted in Ethiopia[19, 21]. This could be explained by the disproportionality of tasks assigned and benefits given which pushed professionals to search for new jobs, while satisfied professionals wanted to remain within organizations because of needs to maintain benefits.
Our finding also showed that LPs who were dissatisfied with educational opportunities were 3.59 times more likely to leave their organizations compared with their satisfied counterparts. Poor training opportunities also increased intentions to leave as reported by other studies [19, 21, 23]. This can be explained by the fact that less professional opportunities may increase job dissatisfaction because of the absence of chances to grow and develop own skills and abilities.
Intentions to leave were higher among respondents who were dissatisfied with the recognition and reward granted compared to their counterparts. This might be because satisfied professionals believe that leaving organizations that reward would be costly in that the opportunities might be unlikely to obtain elsewhere. This finding is supported by those of studies done on Jordanian nurses and revealed the direct and buffering effects of recognition to the performance of nurses on the intention to stay on jobs [24] (see Herzberg Two Factor Theory of Motivation [25].
Our finding also shows that LPs who were dissatisfied with working environments were three times more likely to leave their hospitals compared to their counterparts. This finding is in agreement with those of studies done in Sidama and Jimma zones public health facilities [26, 27] and also supported by Herzberg Two Factor Theory of Motivation which identifies recognition, work conditions, the nature of work and responsibility as factors that influence employee intentions to stay or leave by affecting their satisfaction needs [25]. The other possible explanation could be that substandard working conditions or lack of important facilities in workplaces such as proper lighting, furniture, restrooms, and other health and safety provisions reduce the convenience of employees and hinder their intentions to stay on jobs.
Our study identified that LPs with high workload were more likely to leave their organizations was congruent with the finding of other studies [27, 28]. This could be because excess load increases pressure and results in high fatigue which may lead employees to seek jobs elsewhere.
Moreover, the findings show that LPs with low affective commitment were two times more likely to intend to leave their organizations compared to those with high affective commitment. This finding is supported by other studies in which committed employees are likely to remain with their organizations [29, 30][31]. That is because if employees have a sense of belonging or are involved and linked emotionally, they want to stay within the organization.