Abstract
Background: Quiet quitting has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences for healthcare organizations and services have been expected.
Objective: To identify levels of quiet quitting among clinical nurses in Greece. Moreover, we examined the impact of demographic and job characteristics on quiet quitting.
Methods: We conducted an online cross-sectional study in Greece. We collected our data in February 2024. We obtained a convenience sample of nurses who have been working in clinical settings. We used the “Quiet Quitting” Scale (QQS) to measure levels of quiet quitting among nurses in our study. Moreover, we measured gender, age, educational level, job sector, understaffed workplace, shift work, and years of clinical experience.
Results: Applying the suggested cut-off point we found that seven out of ten nurses (68.2%, n=620) can be considered as quiet quitters, while three out of ten (31.8%, n=289) can be considered as non-quiet quitters. We found that males experienced higher levels of quiet quitting than females (adjusted coefficient beta = 0.216, 95% CI = 0.093 to 0.339, p-value = 0.001). Additionally, shift workers (adjusted coefficient beta = 0.182, 95% CI = 0.091 to 0.272, p-value < 0.001) and nurses who have been working in understaffed workplaces (adjusted coefficient beta = 0.134, 95% CI = 0.006 to 0.262, p-value = 0.040) showed higher levels of quiet quitting. Decreased years of clinical experience were associated with increased quiet quitting (adjusted coefficient beta = -0.008, 95% CI = -0.012 to -0.004, p-value < 0.001). Conclusions: In our sample, nurses reported high levels of quiet quitting. Gender, shift work, an understaffed workplace, and clinical experience had an impact on quiet quitting. Healthcare organizations and managers should pay attention to quiet quitting in order to improve nurses’ productivity and patients’ outcomes.