This study was done in a Sao Paulo city hospital with 54 nurses who required for dismissal from January, 1995 to January, 1996. All of them at the dismissal interview provided information on how long they had worked for the hospital, reasons for leaving and their frank opinions about the hospital itself, nurse department directors and personal suggestions. The study goal was to evaluate the reasons for high turnover of institutions nurses in order to draw adequate administrative intervention strategies. An exploratory study of retrospective character with data quantitative qualitative analysis has been used. Data analysis considered that 74% of the nurses had left the institution in 12 months but 35.3% until the third month. The nurses emphasized work conditions specially the staff, benefits and interpersonal communication. The results came towards our perception on the institution nurses turnover causes.
Turnover; Health institution