Why theatre nurses leave, and why pay is not the whole story
We asked theatre and perioperative staff across Australia and New Zealand one question. Why did you leave your last role?
We expected pay to come top. It did not. The answer that came up most was the manager or leadership.
What people told us
The reasons that came up most were:
The manager or leadership
Workload and burnout
Chronic short staffing, and a better offer, equally
Other reasons included relocation or family, bullying or unacceptable behaviour, and then pay, no pathway to progress and team culture, level with each other.
Respondents could name more than one reason. Leaving is rarely a single decision. It builds.
Pay matters less than the budget suggests
In our experience, a lot of retention spending in private hospitals goes on pay reviews, retention bonuses and sign-on payments. That money is aimed at a reason that did not make the top of the list.
This is not an argument for paying theatre staff less. Pay still came up. A nurse who feels underpaid and badly managed will leave faster than one who feels only underpaid. But if your theatre department is haemorrhaging staff and your only lever is money, you are treating a symptom.
Leadership, burnout and short staffing are all things a hospital can influence directly. A better offer came up just as often as short staffing. That is usually a sign someone was already open to leaving before the call came.
The conversation that happens too late
By the time a resignation lands, the conversation that might have kept that person is too late. The retention conversation happens months earlier, and it usually does not happen at all.
Four questions worth asking about your own theatre
Do you know why your last five leavers went? Most hospitals record a resignation date and a notice period. Few record a reason. In our experience, exit interviews run by the departing person's own line manager rarely surface leadership as a cause.
Who is having the stay conversation, and when? Not the exit interview. The one that happens while someone is still deciding.
Is time to hire a retention metric in your department? Every vacancy left open increases the load on everyone still there. Short staffing is both a cause of resignations and a consequence of them.
Are your NUMs and ANUMs supported as people leaders, or only as clinicians? Strong clinical performers get promoted into leadership roles with very little leadership development. Several of the reasons people gave sit downstream of that.
If you are a theatre nurse reading this
None of this will surprise you. Leadership, workload and staffing came up more often than money. That suggests most people leaving theatre are not chasing a pay rise. They are trying to get somewhere that works.
When you assess your next move, ask about the manager, the roster and the vacancy rate before you ask about the salary.
Talk to us
Carejobz places permanent theatre and perioperative staff across Australia and New Zealand, and works with hospitals on why those staff stay. If your theatre department is losing people faster than you can replace them, get in touch.
About the survey. A survey of theatre and perioperative staff across Australia and New Zealand, run in September 2026 through the Carejobz database. Respondents chose from a fixed list of reasons and could select more than one. The sample is small and self-selecting, so treat these findings as a signal worth testing in your own theatre, not a measurement.
If your theatre is losing staff faster than you can replace them, or you would like a confidential conversation about your own next move, contact Paul on 04 355 83849 or email paul@carejobz.com
