The purpose of this research was to determine the effect work environment has on occupational commitment and intent to leave the profession for bedside registered nurses. Subscales of autonomy, control over the practice setting, nurse-physician relationship, and organizational support were incorporated into the analysis to determine which aspect of work environment most directly effects occupational commitment and intent to leave the profession. The research was undertaken in order to help administrators determine the ways in which work environment can be improved upon in order to retain bedside registered nurses in the profession. An explanatory cross sectional survey was distributed to 259 direct care bedside registered nurses employed at a rural, system affiliated hospital in Central Florida. Human subject protection was assured through the University of Central Florida Institutional Review Board. A 77 item questionnaire containing 9 demographic questions, 57 questions from the Nursing Work Index- Revised (NWI-R), 8 questions from Blau's occupational commitment scale, and 3 questions from Blau's intent to leave scale was distributed to all direct care nurses. Subjects were also given the opportunity to complete 3 short answer questions. A 32.8 percent response rate was achieved for a total of 85 complete and usable surveys. Data analysis showed that the work environment is positively related to occupational commitment and negatively related to intent to leave. In addition each of the four subscales (autonomy, control over the practice setting, relationship with physicians, and organizational support) were also positively related to occupational commitment and negatively related to intent to leave the profession. Implications for organizations, public policy and future research are discussed.