Objective: To explore the factors influencing recruitment and retention of nurses in Lagos State Hospitals. Background: Despite the perceived efforts made by Hospitals Management in Lagos State to recruit and retain nurses, there is still inadequate number of nurses to match the demand of care needed by patients in the hospitals. Methods: The descriptive study utilized mixed methods to gather data. It consisted of 330 consented and randomly selected nurses for the survey and 14 purposively selected nurse leaders and Director for the interview. The instruments were pretested questionnaire, semi-structured interview guide and existing records. Result: The study revealed that all health institutions in Lagos State were aware of the standard procedures of recruitment of nurses, but often engages in replacement rather than proper recruitment. Most of the Nursing leadership positions in Lagos State were vacant. More than half (68.2%) of the nurse respondents were not sure if they would still be working in their health institution in the next five years. It was revealed that the turnover rate of nurses in the State Health institutions was higher than the Federal health institutions in Nigeria. Conclusion: Increment in salary and allowances rated the best influence on recruitment and retention of nurses in Lagos State. Lack of nursing leadership; sense of job security and work environment were the major factors influencing recruitment and retention of nurses. There is need for adequate human resource planning; increased efforts and formulation of policies that will improve recruitment and retention of nurses in Lagos State of Nigeria.