Exploring why nurses transition from acute care to primary health care employment

Nursing in PHC settings has not generally been viewed as a positive career move, with previous studies reporting negative aspects associated with nursing in PHC and their influence on job satisfaction (Ashley, Halcomb, & Brown, 2016). These include perceived skill loss, poor wages, and sub-optimal professional opportunities compared with acute care roles (Curtis & Glacken, 2014; Halcomb et al., 2014, Halcomb & Ashley, 2017). There is also limited literature which specifically explores the reasons why nurses disengage from often long held acute care roles to transition to PHC employment (Ashley et al., 2016). It is timely, therefore, to develop an evidence base relating to the process of transition from acute to PHC employment to inform future recruitment strategies and transition support programs