The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship among job characteristics, achievement motivation, job involvement, job satisfaction, and retention of the hospital nurses. The subjects were 162 nurses who worked in the three teaching hospitals. Structural questionnaires were used to collect data and the response rate of questionnaires was 82%. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, Scheffe's posteriori comparison, Pearson's productmoment correlation, and Stepwise multiple regression were u tilized in data analysis. The results indicated that: match subjects' work interest, high job autonomy, high task identity, high feedback from the job itself and others, good leadership and clear work structure can improve the hospital nurses' job involvement, job satisfaction, and retention. The nurses who have higher achievement motivation can elevate the subjects' job involvement and job satisfaction. The frequency of night duty and the opportunity of in-service education were significantly associated with job satisfaction and retention. Moreover, the fixation of work time has significant effects on the subjects' job satisfaction, the workers who have fixed work time have higher job satisfaction than the others. To sum up the results, this study provides some suggestions about nursing administration.