Objective To investigate job satisfaction and leaving intention of nurses in the anesthesiology department of China, and to provide reference for the construction of nursing teams in the anesthesiology department. Methods A self‑designed questionnaire was used. Based on the convenience sampling method, 262 nurses who attended the 27th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Medical Association on Anesthesia were assessed. Results A total of 262 questionnaires were distributed, and 257 were recovered, including 250 qualified questionnaires with an effective recovery rate of 95.42%. According to the surgery, the nurses were mainly married women, with a bachelor's degree or above, and worked with an intermediate certificate for more than 10 years. Among them, 53.6% were not required for night shifts, and 32.4% worked overtime more than 36 h per month. Their job satisfaction score was (3.3±0.7) and leaving intention score was (2.7±0.9), and there was a significant negative correlation between them (P<0.01). Personal and working conditions were the most possible factors leading to leaving. Conclusions The job satisfaction and leaving intention of nurses in the anesthesia department are at the intermediate level and the sense of identification as a nurse is not high. It is suggested that all medical institutions should increase the allocation of nurses in the anesthesia department to reduce overtime work. Meanwhile, professional orientation and training management for the nurses in the anesthesia department should be clarified at the national level as soon as possible, so as to improve the current situation of imbalance between professional reward and workload of nurses, and steadily promote the construction and management of anesthesia nursing teams in China.