الفهرس 
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Abstract
Work is one of the major societal indicators of health, and it can enhance or impair health by several diverse mechanisms. Work can also negatively affect the health of humans who are exposed to various types of occupational hazards. WHO (2019) defines occupational health as a field of public health work that seeks to promote and maintain the maximum levels of physical, mental, and social well-being in every part of occupational workforces.
Statistics show that hospitals are extremely hazardous places to work, subsequently, nursing is a highly significant hazardous profession. Nurses provide patient care in one of the high risky conditions possible at work. Occupational health hazard can be defined as a risk to a person regularly arising out of employment in the sense of the nature or working circumstances of a particular job.
According to research in occupational health, maintaining a safe workplace enhances organizational commitment and employee retention. Occupational health hazards and poor working conditions have reportedly been linked to issues with the recruitment and retention of nurses, intensifying the problem of nurse turnover. The complexity of patient care increases nurses’ risk of injury, in reality, there were always certain risks for nurses. This has adverse consequences, at both organizational and individual levels such as absenteeism, burnout, reduced retention, and high turnover.
The conceptual definition of anticipated turnover was first introduced by Hinshaw et al. (1987) as „the degree to which a staff member thinks or is of the opinion that s(he) will voluntarily terminate her or his present position. One of the most vital resources for healthcare companies and a key component of their success is nursing manpower. The quality of care given to the people will be harmed by nurses’ turnover. when nurses quit, the quality of nursing care declines attributable to the loss of expertise. Additionally, beginner nurses might not have the same level of loyalty to the healthcare organization or the ability, perception, and confidence the same as an expert nurse
Aim of the study
Is to investigate the relationship between nurses’ exposure to occupational health hazards and anticipated turnover.
Materials
Setting of the study:
This study will be conducted in all inpatient units of medical care units, surgical care units and critical care units at Alexandria Main University Hospital.
Subjects:
A non-probability convenience sample technique will be utilized for collecting data in this study. It includes nurses who are working in previously selected settings with experience at least one year, who will be available during time of data collection and providing direct and indirect patient care (n= 724 nurses).
Tools of the study:
Two tools will be used to conduct this study as follows:
Tool one: Nurses’ exposure to the occupational health hazards questionnaire.
This tool was developed by Elsawy (2018) based on the framework of Keorekile (2015) to assess nurses’ exposure to occupational hazards. It includes 37 items divided into five types of occupational hazards as follows: physical (8 items), biological (5 items), ergonomic (10 items), chemical (6 items) and psychological (8 items). Nurses will respond using five-point likert scale ranging from 1 to5 while 1= never exposed and 5= always exposed.
Tool two: Anticipated Turn-over Scale (ATS):
It was developed by Hinshaw et al. (1987) and modified by Liou (2007). It is used to measure the nurses’ perception of the possibility to leave their current job position. It is composed of 12 items on self-report scale 5- point Likert scale.
Nurses was responded to 12 items ranging from 1 to 5. 1= strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree. All negative statements will have a reverse score. The total score of ATS ranges from 12 - 60. The score was classified into 3 levels as follows: from 12 – 28 indicate low probability of turnover, from 29 –39 indicate moderate probability of turnover and from 40 -60 indicate high probability of turnover.
Method
1. An official permission was obtained from Ethical Research Committee, administrative authority at the Faculty of Nursing Alexandria University, and from hospital administrators to collect the necessary data.
2. Tool two was translated and back translated into Arabic, and tested for face and content validity by five experts in the field of the study and necessary modification was done.
3. Tool one was tested for internal consistency of the items composing it by using cronbach‟s alpha test and proved high reliability (r=0.890) (Elsawy, 2018). Tool two was tested for reliability by using cronbach‟s alpha test and proved high reliability (r=o,830).
4. Pilot study was conducted by check10% of nurses (n=25) other than the study subjects
5. The researcher attended on a daily basis except Friday during morning and evening shifts. The time needed to fill the questionnaire was about 15 minutes. Data collection took a period of 3 months from 15/6/2021 to 15/9/2021.
Results
The following is the most important results of the current study:
- The present study revealed that the most studied nurses had moderate exposure to occupational health hazards.
- The present study demonstrate that highest mean percentage score perceived by the studied nurses was related to mechanical hazards (ergonomics).
- Alternatively, the result of this study revealed that the lowest mean percentage score spotted by the studied nurses was related to physical hazards.
- The present study finding discovered that, psychological hazards rated the second frequent hazards marked by the studied nurses.
- The finding of the present study proved that biological hazards ranked the third and chemical hazards ordered the fourth.
- In relation to sociodemographic data, the present study clarified that there was a high statistically significant relationship between educational level, current working units, years of experience, age and nurses‟ exposure to the occupational health hazards.
- In addition, the result of this study illustrated that the study nurses had a moderate probability of turnover.
- The result of this study was surprising to the researcher as it proved that there was a weak statistically significant positive correlation between overall nurses‟ exposure to occupational hazards and their anticipated turn over.
- The present study detected that, age, marital status, educational qualification, years of experience in nursing and years of experience in the current working unit shows a high statistically significant relationship with nurses’ anticipated turnover except nurses’ gender.
Recommendations
Based on the results of this study,
In relation to occupational health hazards:
Nurse mangers:
- Should absolutely be sure that the organization’s responsibilities, the occupational safety and health policy: a. General statement, and the specific arrangements for the health and safety of nurses and patients are communicated to and implemented within their areas of responsibility.
- Developing reporting systems for workplace incidents.
- Examine the circumstances surrounding any incidents, near misses, or accidents impacting the health and safety of nurses, to figure out the cause(s) and prevent a recurrence.
Nurses:
- Use PPE as provided by organization to prevent risk to his/her safety and health
- Report to the supervisor of probable hazards
In relation to anticipated turnover:
- Since anticipated turnover is a sign of actually leaving, surveying nurses may give data into what unit characteristics are existing that can lead to increased anticipated turnover.
- Assessing nurses’ core values might help organizations develop measures to reduce turnover.
- Assessing nurses‟ needs and desires for their jobs can lead to unconventional retention strategies, improve job satisfaction and contract anticipated turnover.