J Adv Nurs. 2020;00:1–10. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jan | 1 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Received: 2 June 2020 | Revised: 3 October 2020 | Accepted: 18 November 2020 DOI: 10.1111/jan.14717 ORIGINAL RESEARCH: EMPIRICAL RESEARCH - QUANTITATIVE Investigating the relationship between organizational justice, job satisfaction, and intention to leave the nursing profession: A cross-sectional study Hosein Zahednezhad 1 | Mohammad Ali Hoseini 2 | Abbas Ebadi 3 | Pouya Farokhnezhad Afshar 4 | Reza Ghanei Gheshlagh 5 1 Department of Psychiatric Nursing and Management, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Nursing, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences (USWR), Tehran, Iran 3 Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Nursing Faculty, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 4 School of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 5 Spiritual Health Research Center, Research Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran Correspondence Hosein Zahednezhad, Department of Psychiatric Nursing and Management, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran. Email: zahednezhad.h@gmail.com Abstract Aims: This study aims to test a hypothetical model linking various dimensions of or - ganizational justice to the job satisfaction and nurses' intention to leave the profession based on the theoretical assumptions of the Alexander model of voluntary turnover. Design: A cross-sectional survey. Methods: This study was conducted on 317 inpatient ward nurses of six teaching hospi- tals in Tehran, Iran during 1 September 2017–14 November 2018. Clinical nurses were recruited by a multistage random sampling. Data were collected using structured ques- tionnaires of organizational justice, job satisfaction, and nurses' intention to leave. Data were analysed by structural equation modelling using Amos 22 statistical program. Results: The structural equation model demonstrated adequate fit and the hypoth- esized correlations were partially supported. The findings suggested that the dis- tributive justice ( p < .001; β = 0.24) and interactional justice ( p < .001; β = 0.44) could indirectly affect the nurses' intention to leave the nursing profession via the direct impact on job satisfaction, while job satisfaction had a significant, negative effect on the nurses' intention to leave ( p < .001; β = −0.71). Conclusions: According to the results, the model fit was acceptable, suggesting the validity of the final model. Furthermore, distributive and interactional justice could reduce the intention to leave the nursing profession by influencing the job satisfac- tion of the clinical nurses. Impact: This was one of the first studies to determine the aspects of justice that must be further emphasized by healthcare managers to increase the job satisfaction of nurses and their retention in healthcare systems. The findings indicated that fair interactions have a greater impact on job satisfaction and retention of nurses than procedural and distributive justice. The results of this study provide valuable refer - ences for nursing managers to increase the job satisfaction of nurses and their reten- tion in healthcare settings. KEYWORDS intention to leave profession, job satisfaction, nurses, organizational justice, structural equation modelling