Objectives To investigate the current status of nurses' turnover intention and job satisfaction in secondary and tertiary women and children's hospitals in Guangzhou. Methods 3 026 nurses were enrolled in this study, which were from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou urban area and another 4 secondary hospitals located in rural districts, namely Huadu, Nansha, Conghua, Zengcheng. Systematic sampling was adopted. The Mueller/McCloskey Nurse Job Satisfaction Scale (MMSS) and Turnover IntentionQuestionaire(TIQ)were applied to carry out this investigation. Differences of nurses' turnover intention and job satisfaction between different levels' hospitals were compared and analyzed. Results Compared with those in the secondary hospitals, nurses in the tertiary maternity hospital were at higher average age, had better academic backgrounds with higher professional titles, more bonus and more positions of establishment. The differences all were statistically significant (P<0.05). The average scores of turnover intention for nurses from the secondary and tertiary hospitals were2.38±0.682 and 2.87 ±0.570 respectively. All the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion Compared with those in the secondary maternal and child health hospitals, nurses in the tertiary hospitals were more willing to leave and had lower job satisfaction. Nurse's managers may take effective measurses to increase nurse's satisfaction.