To investigate the current status of psychological capital, career plateau and turnover intention in ICU nurses and to analyze the influence of psychological capital and career on turnover intention.

A total of 233 ICU nurses from the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University who met the criteria were selected by convenient sampling from February to April 2017. The nurses were investigated with the Psychological Capital Questionnaire-Chinese (PCQC) , Career Plateau Questionnaire (CPQ) and Turnover Intention Scule (TIS) . Totally 233 questionnaires were handed out and 224 valid questionnaires were collected.

The total score of psychological capital in the 224 ICU nurses was (88.53±13.16) , and the highest score was found in the dimension of self-efficacy, while the lowest score was in the dimension of hope; the total average score of career plateau was (3.83±0.92) ; and the score of turnover intention was (16.82±5.01) . According to the hierarchical stepwise regression analysis, contractual employment, hope, hierarchical plateau and content plateau were the main influencing factors of ICU nurses' turnover intention, which could account for 39.8% of the total variation.

ICU nurses show a strong turnover intention, and contractual employment, hope, hierarchical plateau and content plateau may affect their turnover intention. ICU nursing managers should formulate proper and effective improvement strategies for psychological capital and alleviation strategies for career plateau based on the current status of psychological capital and career plateau in nurses and take proper measures to enhance their enthusiasm and job satisfaction of contractually employed nurses, and reinforce the stability of ICU nursing team.

Nurses; Intensive care unit; Psychological capital; Career plateau; Turnover intention