The aim of this study was to describe reasons why psychiatric nurse specialists choose to leave psychiatric inpatient care. In this study psychiatric nurse specialists were interviewed about their reasons for leaving psychiatric inpatient care. A total of nine semi-structured interviews were completed from within a Swedish psychiatric specialist health care setting. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to qualitative content analysis. Four themes emerged; 'wanting to use newly gained competence and develop advanced nursing care'; 'dissatisfaction with labour management'; 'lack of resources for advanced nursing care' and; 'the lack of personal balance between work and private life'. This study described the psychiatric nurse specialists' strong commitment to their former workplace, and to the patients they cared for in inpatient psychiatric care. This study also showed that the reasons why psychiatric nurse specialists choose to leave psychiatric inpatient care are multidimensional. The psychiatric nurse specialists want to use their newly gained competence and develop advanced nursing care, but, a lack of resources to perform advanced nursing care and dissatisfaction with labour management in combination with the lack of balance between work and their private lives may cause psychiatric nurse specialists to leave psychiatric inpatient care.