The purpose of this study was to investigate the casual relationship between nurses' mentoring and turnover intention and to verify the goodness of fit between a hypothetical model and actual data in order to suggest an adequate model.

The survey was conducted with 434 nurses working in general hospitals in Seoul. Data were collected during February 2013, and analyzed with SPSS Windows 18.0 and AMOS 7.0.

Mentoring was found to have a direct effect on decrease in role stress. Role stress had a direct effect on increase in burnout and mentoring, with role stress as a mediator, there was an indirect effect on burnout. Burnout had a direct effect on increase in turnover intention, and role stress, with burnout as a mediator, and mentoring, through role stress and burnout, an indirect effect was found on increase in turnover intention.

The results of this study indicate that nursing managers should put effort into reducing role stress and burnout, while seeking to establish a more efficient mentoring system so that for nurses, there will be a lowering of turnover intention.