The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between intention of retention, positive psychological capital, job crafting and job satisfaction of the nurses in general hospital and descriptive correlation to identify factors affecting intention of retention. The subjects of this study were nurses who had more than 6 months of work experience at a general hospital in C city. The final number of subjects was 198. Data were collected from September to October 2021. Data were analyzed using real number and percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression using the SPSS 25.0 program

The results of this study were summarized as follows.

1. Nurses’ average score of Intention to stay was 5.01±1.43 points(range 1-8 ), positive psychological capital was 3.77±0.55 points(range 1-6), job crafting was 3.76±0.62 points(range 1-6), and job satisfaction was 3.31±0.52 points(range 1-5)

2. There was a significant difference in the intention of retention by the general hospital within the factor of marital status (t=-2.12, p=.035) according to general and job-related characteristics of general hospital nurses. Therefore, married nurses were more likely to have a higher intention of retention than unmarried nurses.

3. Intention of retention in general hospital nurses showed significant positive correlation with positive psychological capital(r=.40, p<.001), job crafting (r=.43, p<.001), and job satisfaction (r=.59, p<.001).

4. As a result of hierarchical regression analysis, the factors affecting the intention of retention in the position among nurses in general hospital were: marital status (β=.15, p=.035) explained by 2.2% in Model 1; positive psychological capital (β=.18, p=.037), and job crafting (β=.29, p=.001) explained by 20.9% in Model 2; and job satisfaction (β=.55, p<.001) explained by 36.3% in Model 3. Thus, the factors affecting the nurse''s intention of retention were marital status in Model 1, positive psychological capital and job crafting in Model 2, and job satisfaction in Model 3.

In conclusion, it is necessary to find systematic ways to improve positive psychological capital for nurses in general hospitals in order to: increase the intention of retention in the job; to develop and apply intervention programs to increase job crafting; and identify various aspects of a management plan to increase job satisfaction.