106 | Chapter 5 Reasons for leaving (interview study) Figure 3 shows the code tree of the themes and categories related to the reasons for leaving the profession. This figure shows that the reasons for the intention to leave and the reasons for ultimately leaving the job are very similar. Regarding the intention to leave (survey study), one category emerged that was unique: responsibilities (Qualitative job demand). The interviews revealed five unique categories: unpleasant team atmosphere (lack of social resource), lack of challenges, concerns about autonomy (lack of work resources), and lower commitment and lower performance (outcomes). Job demands The job demands mentioned were reasons related to qualitative (emotional and mental demands), quantitative (workload) and organisational aspects of their work. Qualitative demands Participants indicated that it was difficult to balance their work and personal life, which was reflected in the difficulties with planning their work and personal time. The perception that they did not have enough time and attention for their own children and the feeling of being less involved in organisational tasks within the practice led to worklife conflicts. I thought it was really difficult when, after a night shift, my daughter wasn’t at day care and I had to look after a baby. I couldn’t sleep and I also had to rush to my father to care for him, no sleep, as I said... and then the additional management tasks. If a shift was quiet, I would complete those as well during my shift. So I went to my manager at some point and said: I simply cannot handle it any more like this. (P14) Being on-call and working in community care with shifts of 24 hours or more were reasons for participants to quit. The burden of availability, irregular working hours (never knowing when you need to work) and having 24/7 shifts were reasons for leaving in the long run. Some older participants particularly found it difficult working night shifts. They indicated that they needed more time to recover from the hours they worked at night. At one point, the night shifts were causing me so much stress that I was suffering from stomach ache two days in advance. Eh, so almost all week I would have this sort of brick in my stomach, because I had to do another night shift… how was I going to do this? After the night shift, I then had to do home visits for 12 hours on end, I don’t know, just going on and on for 24 hours... (P06)
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