Nurse turnover may decrease the quality of nursing care due to the loss of knowledge. It also results in high costs for the employer. Hence, the factors contributing to nurse turnover, if correctly understood, are important in order to know how to reduce it. This study aimed at exploring what contributing factors nurses who had decided to leave referred to concerning their decision to resign. A questionnaire was posted to all nurses who had left within one county council and 142 nurses responded. The most important factors behind the decision to leave turned out to be the following: difficult to implement changes, lack of influence and recognition, to much weekend and evening duty as well as the psychological burden inherent in nursing. The importance of the first three factors became significantly more important when those who remained in the geographical area were compared with those who moved or started to study. The findings support the idea that job satisfaction indirectly influences nurses turnover. However, it also points to the fact that what increases job satisfaction in nursing may need further research. Psychological burden for instance has not been taken into consideration before. In order to increase job satisfaction, thereby reducing nurse turnover, influence and recognition, lessening of the psychological burden and individually planned work schedules seem to be the most important factors.