Background: Staff nurses are the most strategic human resource in healthcare
organizations. Therefore, administrators struggle to enhance nurse manager's leadership
practices to promote employee motivation and retention. Aim: to assess nurse manager's
leadership practices and its relation to staff nurses motivation and intention to leave. Research
Design: A descriptive correlational design was utilized to achieve the aim of the present study.
Sample: A convenient sample (n=142) of staff nurses who agreed to participate in the study
were included. Setting: The study was conducted at a University hospital at Cairo Tool: three
questionnaires were used,1- leadership practices questionnaire 2- motivation questionnaire 3-
Intention to leave questionnaire Results: the majority of staff nurses' highly perceived their
nurse managers leadership practices, around half of them had moderate motivation level and
around two-thirds of them had high to moderate intention to leave level. There was a highly
positive statistically significant correlation between staff nurses' perception of nurse managers'
leadership practices, and staff nurses' motivation and intention to leave. Conclusion: the study
finding revealed that there was a highly positive statistically significant correlation between
staff nurses' perception of nurse managers' leadership practices and their motivation and
intention to leave. Recommendations: Administrators should develop nursing education
programs to prepare the new and inexperienced nurse managers' leadership practices to fit
different positions and they should enhance leadership practices that support the development
of a healthy work environment through which they will achieve a high motivation level and
improve staff retention welling.