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The critical shortage of nurses experienced throughout the western world has prompted researchers to examine one major component of this complex problem – the impact of nurses’ professional identity and job satisfaction on retention.

A descriptive correlational design with a longitudinal element was used to examine a causal model of nurses’ self-concept, job satisfaction, and retention plans in 2002.

A random sample of 2000 registered nurses was selected from the state registering authority listing. A postal survey assessing multiple dimensions of nurses’ self-concept (measured by the nurse self-concept questionnaire), job satisfaction (measured by the index of work satisfaction) was undertaken at Time 1 (n=528) and 8 months later at Time 2 (n=332) (including retention plans (measured by the Nurse Retention Index). Using confirmatory factor analysis, correlation matrices …