Procrastination, stress, and self-rated health: A multi-sample meta-analysis.

Workforce stability has become one of the central prerequisites for sustainable health systems. In nursing and other healthcare professions, this issue is not limited to the absolute number of available workers but also concerns whether current and future members of the workforce are willing and able to remain in the field over time. Workforce stability is therefore understood here as the capacity of healthcare systems and organizations to sustain a sufficiently prepared, committed, and continuing workforce. Contemporary reviews show that retention is a multidimensional phenomenon shaped by organizational conditions, professional experience, personal resources, and broader labor‐market factors, with consequences for staffing continuity, team functioning, and quality of care [–]. Intention to stay is a useful early indicator of this process because it captures respondents’ stated willingness to continue in healthcare before actual turnover or career exit occurs [, ]. Existing research links this intention to interpersonal safety at work, communication openness, staffing conditions, workload, leadership quality, and the wider practice environment [–]. At the same time, the effects of the work environment on workforce stability may not be only direct. Burnout, subjective well‐being, professional values, and perceived meaning in work can mediate or modify how organizational conditions are translated into decisions about staying or leaving [–]. For this reason, retention needs to be examined as a combination of relational, professional, and contextual factors rather than as a single organizational problem. The present study focuses on three domains that are both theoretically relevant and practically important for retention. Workplace relationships and leadership refer to the quality of interpersonal climate, communication, trust, feedback, supervisor support, and shared responsibility in everyday work or clinical‐learning settings. Professional commitment refers to the degree to which respondents perceive healthcare work as meaningful, value‐congruent, developmental, and worth continuing. Mobility is treated more narrowly as a place‐related preference dimension, reflecting orientation toward work abroad, preference for working close to home, and willingness to relocate for a better offer. Previous studies suggest that professional identity, career calling, resilience, transition experience, and professional values are closely connected with retention intention, especially among students, trainees, and early‐career nurses [–]. Mobility and migration intentions are also relevant, particularly in Central and Eastern European contexts, but the literature suggests that such intentions are intertwined with professional identity, financial incentives, career opportunities, and learning environments rather than operating as simple standalone predictors [–]. A further rationale for the present study is the comparison between the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These countries share historical, linguistic, educational, and professional proximity, while functioning as independent healthcare systems with their own institutional arrangements. This creates a useful comparative setting: Substantial similarity between samples would suggest that the studied mechanisms may be robust across closely related contexts, whereas meaningful differences would indicate that national or institutional conditions shape retention‐related attitudes. The comparison was therefore treated as an empirical question rather than as an assumption of strong divergence. By examining workplace relationships and leadership, professional commitment, and place‐related mobility preferences in one model, the study aims to provide a clearer basis for workforce‐stabilization strategies directed at both current and future healthcare personnel.