Evaluation of Nurses' Intent to Leave: Italian Translation, Cultural Adaptation, and Initial Psychometric Assessment of the Anticipated Turnover Scale

Abstract

AIM: The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and preliminarily validate the Italian version of the Anticipated Turnover Scale (ATS). DESIGN: Cross-sectional validation study. METHODS: The Italian version of the ATS instrument was evaluated in a non-probabilistic sample of 168 nurses working at a Northeastern Italian Public University Hospital. Content validity was assessed by expert evaluation and statistical significance analysed using a binomial test. Construct validity was explored through Principal Axis Factoring analysis and internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha. RESULTS: In a sample of 168 Italian nurses, the Italian 12-item (complete) version of the ATS showed an Item-Level Content Validity Index of 0.68, an internal structure with three main factors explaining 57.82% of the variance, and an internal consistency of 0.828. A reduced 10-item version showed an Item-Level Content Validity Index of 0.78, an internal structure with two main factors explaining 59.16% of the variance, and internal consistency increased to 0.901. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian version of the ATS was preliminarily evaluated for its validity and reliability. In the current form, it is not ready for practical application yet and further studies should deepen its psychometric properties, as well as perform a confirmatory factor analysis on the factor structures reported here. They should also examine its temporal stability and establish a cut-off point to estimate actual turnover. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: After implementing the questionnaire validation process, as reported above, ATS may help nursing managers to assess intention to leave and plan targeted and personalized interventions for improving retention, engagement, and well-being among nursing professionals. NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patients, service users, caregivers, or members of the public were involved in this study, as it focused on the psychometric validation of a scale among registered nurses.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Nursing Open, 2026 · DOI ↗