Background <p>In many countries, shortages in the number of nurses and unfavorable working conditions have become a significant problem, leading to an increase in nurses’ intention to leave their jobs. This study aims to determine the effect of nurses’ humanistic care ability on their turnover intention and the possible mediating role of care behaviors in this relationship.</p> Methods <p>This study employed a quantitative research approach with a descriptive, cross-sectional design. The study was carried out among nurses from multiple hospitals across Turkey to ensure sample diversity and enhance the generalizability of the findings. The study included a total of 456 nurses. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 and the PROCESS 4.1 macro.</p> Results <p>Results showed that humanistic care ability had a significant negative direct effect on turnover intention (β = -0.0076, <i>p</i> = .039), while caring behaviors also negatively and significantly influenced turnover intention (β = -0.0076, <i>p</i> &lt; .001). Furthermore, the indirect effect analysis indicated a significant mediating role of caring behaviors in the relationship between humanistic care ability and turnover intention (β = -0.0083, 95% CI [-0.0124, -0.0046]).</p> Conclusions <p>The findings indicate that nurses’ care behaviors are effective in reducing turnover intentions and that a humanistic approach plays a mediating role in the relationship between turnover intentions. Incorporating humanistic care models into nursing education and assessing students’ humanistic levels may increase job satisfaction, thereby supporting retention in the profession and enhancing the quality of care.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>