Primary sources checked and last verified September 28, 2026: OECD Health at a Glance 2025, the Commonwealth Fund’s 2026 Türkiye country profile, Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences (Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022), International Nursing Review (Yürümezoğlu & Çamveren, 2024/2025), and Journal of Nursing Management (Karadag et al., 2026). No named government turnover report or official Ministry of Health shortage projection specific to nurses was located during this research pass — that gap is addressed directly below.

Türkiye has 2.9 practicing nurses per 1,000 population, less than a third of the OECD average of 9.2 [OECD Health at a Glance 2025].

Inside hospitals that are already this understaffed, peer-reviewed research puts high intention to leave at 50.8% among working nurses [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022, Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences], and a 2026 qualitative study cites a reported 76.3% of nurses expressing intent to migrate abroad [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management, citing an earlier source].

Those two numbers, read together, describe a workforce that is simultaneously the thinnest in the OECD and the least inclined to stay in it.

Which Framing the Evidence Supports

The strongest, freshest, and most consistent evidence available for Türkiye is retention-focused: peer-reviewed intention-to-leave and migration-intention research, published as recently as 2026. This article does not lead with a shortage-projection framing, because no named, current Turkish government or regulator workforce-projection report (comparable to, say, an HRSA or NCSBN supply-demand model) was found during this research pass — only the OECD’s static workforce-density comparison and older Ministry-cited headcounts, which describe supply level, not a forward projection.

It also does not lead with an employer-reported annual turnover-rate framing, because no named industry benchmark report (comparable to NSI Nursing Solutions in the U.S.) covering Turkish hospital exit rates was found. Given that gap, this article uses the retention framing, intention-to-leave, migration intention, and root causes, because that is where the verifiable, current, peer-reviewed evidence actually concentrates.

At a Glance

  1. Türkiye has 2.9 practicing nurses per 1,000 population, versus an OECD average of 9.2 — roughly a third of the average [OECD Health at a Glance 2025].

  2. A separate metric puts Türkiye at 348 nurses per 100,000 population against a European average of 826 (2022 data) [Commonwealth Fund, 2026 Türkiye Country Profile].

  3. 50.8% of surveyed nurses reported high intention to leave their position; 35.5% reported low intention; 13.9% reported no intention to leave [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022, Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences].

  4. A 2026 qualitative study reports that 76.3% of Turkish nurses have expressed intentions to migrate abroad, citing this as a previously published figure rather than this study’s own primary data — flagged here as a secondary citation pending verification of its original source [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management].

  5. New-graduate nurses in Turkish public hospitals showed a 23.57% turnover/exit rate among those with one year or less of service, in a study of 428 nurses across public hospitals [Ulupınar & Aydoğan, 2021, Journal of Nursing Management, as reported in a 2025 systematic review].

  6. The Turkish Ministry of Health reported approximately 232,442 individuals in the nursing/midwifery workforce category as of 2021 [Ministry of Health of the Republic of Turkey, 2021, as cited in Yürümezoğlu & Çamveren, 2024/2025, International Nursing Review].

  7. In a 2026 study of 23 migrated Turkish nurses, the three most cited push factors were poor working conditions, low pay, and workplace violence [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management].

  8. Türkiye spends $2,309 per capita on health (USD PPP), against an OECD average of $5,967 [OECD Health at a Glance 2025].

  9. Türkiye has 3.1 hospital beds per 1,000 population, below the OECD average of 4.2 [OECD Health at a Glance 2025].

  10. A separate cross-sectional study found a negative correlation (r = -.349, p < .001) between nurses’ life satisfaction and their attitudes toward migration, based on a sample of 423 nurses [study on migration attitudes and life satisfaction, International Nursing Review, 2024/2025].

Workforce Density: The Structural Starting Point

  1. 2.9 practicing nurses per 1,000 population, OECD average 9.2. This means Türkiye operates with roughly a third of the nursing workforce density of the typical OECD country, a gap unchanged in direction from prior editions of this OECD report [OECD Health at a Glance 2025]. This is a density statistic, not a turnover or shortage-projection figure — it describes the current stock, not the trend or the future gap.

  2. 348 nurses per 100,000 population versus a 826 European average (2022 data). The Commonwealth Fund’s independently compiled figure, using a different base year and per-100,000 unit than the OECD’s per-1,000 figure, points in the same direction as the OECD number, which is a useful cross-check even though the two are not on an identical unit or year [Commonwealth Fund, 2026 Türkiye Country Profile].

  3. Only 1 nurse per 1 physician, versus 3–4 nurses per physician in developed health systems. This is an older, frequently cited figure from Turkish health-reform research and should be treated as historical context rather than a current-year statistic; no equivalently specific, more recent nurse-to-physician ratio was located and verified during this pass [Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health working paper on Turkish health reform human resources].

Intention to Leave: The Core Retention Data

  1. 50.8% of nurses report high intention to leave, 35.5% low intention, 13.9% no intention. This is the single most load-bearing figure in Turkish nurse retention research: a cross-sectional, correlational study of 547 nurses across a university hospital, a private hospital, and a teaching hospital, using the validated Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022, Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences, DOI: 10.33808/clinexphealthsci.991808]. The study found unfavorable work environments were significantly correlated with higher intention to leave (R = .370, R² = .137, p < .001).

  2. New-graduate nurses show a 23.57% one-year exit rate in public hospitals. In a study of 428 newly graduated nurses across Turkish public hospitals, 218 were categorized as having high turnover risk within their first year [Ulupınar & Aydoğan, 2021, Journal of Nursing Management, as tabulated in a 2025 systematic review, PMC12365110]. This is meaningfully different from the general intention-to-leave figure above because it measures actual documented exit behavior in a defined new-hire cohort, not a survey-based intention across a mixed-tenure sample.

  3. 76.3% migration-intention figure — flagged as unverified at the primary-source level. A 2026 qualitative study states that “emigration from Türkiye has intensified, with 76.3% of nurses expressing intentions to migrate,” attributing this to an earlier reference rather than presenting it as this study’s own finding [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management]. This research pass was not able to independently trace and verify the original primary source behind that 76.3% figure; it is presented here as a claim carried by a peer-reviewed 2026 paper, not as an independently confirmed government or survey statistic, and should be treated with that caveat until the underlying source is located.

  4. Negative correlation between life satisfaction and migration attitude (r = -.349, p < .001). In a survey of 423 working nurses using the validated Brain Drain Attitude Scale and Life Satisfaction Scale, nurses dissatisfied with their profession and lacking professional or social support scored significantly higher on migration-attitude measures [study on migration attitudes and life satisfaction among Turkish nurses, International Nursing Review, 2024/2025].

Why the Numbers Disagree

These figures range from 23.57% to 76.3% depending on what is actually being measured, and none of them are wrong — they are measuring different things. The 23.57% figure is a documented exit rate among a specific, narrow cohort: new graduates in public hospitals within their first year.

The 50.8% figure is a survey-based intention measure across a broader, mixed-tenure hospital sample, using a validated psychometric scale — intention to leave is a well-established predictor of actual turnover, but it is not the same as a completed exit. The 76.3% figure, as reported in a 2026 paper, concerns migration intention specifically leaving the country and profession’s borders altogether, not just the current employer or unit,

which is a narrower and more extreme behavioral commitment than general intention to leave a job, which likely explains why it would be higher if verified, since it is filtered to nurses already primed toward the most drastic form of exit. Treat unit-level ratios (per 1,000 vs. per 100,000 population) and base years (2021, 2022, 2025) as another source of apparent disagreement, they are not turnover figures at all, but static workforce-density snapshots taken at different points in time.

What’s Actually Driving the Trend

  • Low and eroding pay relative to inflation. Cited as the most frequent driver across multiple studies, including one reporting inadequate nursing salaries (73.6%) and insufficient salary increases relative to inflation (60.6%) as the top two migration reasons among surveyed nurses [study on migration reasons among Turkish nurses, Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 2024].

  • Heavy workload and understaffing. Both the 2026 qualitative migration study and the 2022 intention-to-leave study identify workload as a significant driver; one nurse in the 2026 study described working over 100 hours in a month, beyond the legal limit, with management “carrying forward” the extra hours to obscure the pattern [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management].

  • Workplace violence and lack of professional respect. Multiple studies converge on this as a distinct driver separate from pay or workload, with nurses describing feeling “unseen and undervalued” and citing safety concerns as a specific push factor [Karadag et al., 2026; brain drain literature review, 2025].

  • Limited career advancement, especially in public hospitals. Nurses in the 2026 study specifically linked stalled promotion to political dynamics within public-hospital management structures, describing advancement as effectively unattainable regardless of performance [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management].

  • Fear of future workplace violence, mediated by work overload. A 2026 study found that while fear of violence itself did not directly predict turnover intention, it significantly increased work overload, which in turn significantly predicted turnover intention (β = 0.31, p < 0.01) — meaning violence-related fear operates on retention indirectly, through its effect on workload perception [study on fear of violence and work overload, PMC13106965, 2026].

What Works: Evidence-Backed Interventions

  • Improve practice environments directly, not just pay. The Aydoğmuş & Özlük (2022) study’s own conclusion states that hospital and nurse managers should focus on creating positive work environments specifically to prevent intention to leave — this is drawn directly from a model where work-environment quality, not compensation alone, explained a statistically significant share of variance in intention to leave (R² = .137) [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022].

  • Target new-graduate transition support specifically. Given the 23.57% one-year exit rate documented in new hires, interventions aimed at the first-year “transition shock” period — not generic hospital-wide programs — are supported by the underlying data as the more precisely targeted lever [Ulupınar & Aydoğan, 2021, as synthesized in PMC12365110, 2025].

  • Address workload before or alongside violence-prevention measures. Because the 2026 mediation study found work overload, not fear of violence directly, as the statistically significant path to turnover intention, workload-reduction interventions may have a more direct measurable effect on retention than violence-prevention measures alone, even though both matter [PMC13106965, 2026].

  • Strengthen professional respect and advancement pathways in public hospitals specifically. Since career stagnation and perceived political blocking of promotion were called out specifically in public-hospital contexts, interventions limited to private-hospital settings are unlikely to address the segment of the workforce most affected by this driver [Karadag et al., 2026].

Structural, employer-led fixes — staffing ratios, pay adjustment relative to inflation, transition-to-practice programs, and licensed occupational mental health support — remain the primary evidence-backed levers shown above. Complementary, optional support layers, such as remote wellbeing tools like Ne Ste Al Frequency Therapy, may be used alongside these structural fixes as an additional option for nurses, but should never be presented as a substitute for the staffing, compensation, and workplace-safety reforms the research above identifies as the actual drivers of intention to leave. Ne Ste Al states that it aims to help hospitals reduce nurse stress, burnout, and de-motivation, and to support retention efforts, using Frequency Therapy; however, no independent, peer-reviewed, or named third-party verification of specific outcome percentages for this method was located during this research pass, and any such figures should be treated as company-stated claims pending independent validation. Ne Ste Al does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical or psychiatric condition, and results vary; anyone with clinical symptoms should consult a licensed healthcare provider first.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of nurses in Turkey want to leave their jobs?
A peer-reviewed 2022 study found 50.8% of surveyed nurses reported high intention to leave, with another 35.5% reporting low (but nonzero) intention, and 13.9% reporting no intention to leave [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022, Clinical and Experimental Health Sciences].

Is Turkey experiencing a nursing shortage or a turnover problem?
Both dynamics are present, but the strongest current evidence is retention-focused: Türkiye already has a low nurse-to-population ratio (2.9 per 1,000 versus an OECD average of 9.2) [OECD Health at a Glance 2025], and on top of that thin base, intention-to-leave research shows over half of currently employed nurses are considering leaving [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022]. No current, named government shortage-projection report was located to quantify a specific future supply-demand gap.

How many nurses are leaving Turkey to work abroad?
A 2026 qualitative study cites a previously reported figure of 76.3% of nurses expressing migration intentions, though this research pass could not independently trace that figure to its original primary source, so it should be treated as an unverified secondary citation rather than a confirmed statistic [Karadag et al., 2026, Journal of Nursing Management].

What are the top reasons Turkish nurses want to leave their jobs or the country?
Low and inflation-eroded pay, heavy workload and understaffing, workplace violence, limited career advancement (especially in public hospitals), and a broader sense of lack of professional respect are the most consistently cited drivers across multiple peer-reviewed studies [Karadag et al., 2026; Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 2024; PMC13106965, 2026].

Do new-graduate nurses leave at a different rate than experienced nurses?
Yes — a study of 428 new-graduate nurses in Turkish public hospitals found a 23.57% one-year exit/high-turnover-risk rate specifically in that cohort, which is a distinct, narrower measure than general intention-to-leave figures across mixed-tenure samples [Ulupınar & Aydoğan, 2021, as reported in PMC12365110, 2025].

Can workplace wellness programs fix Turkey’s nurse retention problem on their own?
No credible study reviewed here supports that conclusion. The evidence points to structural drivers — pay, workload, safety, and advancement — as the primary levers; wellness-type interventions are not shown in this research to resolve those structural causes on their own [Aydoğmuş & Özlük, 2022; Karadag et al., 2026].

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