Objective To investigate the turnover intention and reasons of nurses in a class Ⅲ grade A hospital in Wenzhou so as to explore the countermeasures to reduce the turnover rate.Methods A survey was carried out on the turnover intentions of 132 practicing nurses in the hospital. The data of the 210 turnover nurses from 2013 to 2015 were collected. The differences between the high-turnover intention nurses and the actual turnover nurses were analyzed to explore the reasons and directions after turnover.Results A total of 132 nurses were enrolled in this study. Among them, 23 (17.42%) of the nurses had high intention to turnover. There were no significant differences in age, place of birth, education, title, marriage, working years, authorized or not and distribution of departments between the high and low turnover intention groups. A total of 210 nurses left from 2013 to 2015 in the hospital, with a turnover rate of 5.24%. Nurses with foreign account, low academic qualifications and the low title had higher turnover risks. More than half of the turnover nurses were still in the nursing profession,while the remaining 18.6% turnover nurses chose to work cross-border, and 22.9% turnover nurses chose to be full-time housewife. The main reasons for leaving were personal factors and work environment factors.Conclusions The nurses who have high intention to quit might not leave. Turnover is related to the account location, educational levels and professional titles. Therefore, the above factors should be taken into account in assessing the possibility of nurse leaving the hospital.