Nursing Retention

According to Suzanne Gordon “ whether young or old, nurses are disillusioned because they believe that health care systems guided by bottom-line concerns simply don’t recognize the specificity of their work” (234). Nursing is more demanding than many other professions or occupations, due to the combination of difficult patients, exhausting schedules and arduous physical work (Gordon 235). It can take a significant emotional toll on many, hence the higher levels of burnout. Job dissatisfaction as a result of increased workloads and unreasonable demands, such as inappropriate nurse staffing levels, was cited as the number one reason that drives many experienced nurses to leave the profession (Sanford 38+). Studies have shown that such working conditions also affected the retention of new graduate nurses by leaving their first hospital jobs within two years of graduating (Sanford 38+).

Staffing needs affect the nursing department’s budget, staff productivity, the quality of care provided to patients and even the retention of nurses (Jooste, 2013). The nurse manager has to explain to the management of the benefits of change in providing adequate staffing all the time. Adequate staffing helps staff retention. Staff retention saves a lot of money in terms of orienting new people to the unit. Safe staffing always helps in the reduction of falls, infection rates, pressure ulcers, decrease hospital stays and death. Flexible and creative scheduling is essential for retaining staff and promoting a positive work climate (Grohar-Murray & Langan, 2011). Adequate staffing with good staffing ratio will help nurses to concentrate on their patient care which may help in a reduction in medical errors and lawsuits to the hospital.

Nursing shortage and turnover is an issue that has constantly and continually bedeviled the nursing leaders and managers. Without sufficient numbers in nursing, patient care and safety is considerably compromised, with lapses in service delivery, overworked and overwhelmed nurses more prone to making mistakes and across board dissatisfaction. Nursing shortage lads to nurse turnover because of the ones carrying our nursing duties are finding it hard to meet the demand and they eventually burn out. This paper critically examines the issues of nursing shortage and turnover and how the nurse leaders and managers can tackle the situation, easing the outcomes (The Truth About

During the recent years, the American Healthcare system is struggling with the issue of the nursing shortage and turnover. There are many rationales and reasons for this issue and the writer will discuss some of them in this paper. Nursing shortage and turnover remarkably influenced on the provision of the services by the health care provider, the financial burden on the healthcare facility and also a stressful working environment for the nurses. Also, the writer will discuss and evaluate this issue by evaluating numerous leadership and management theories and their roles. In addition to it, will also share a personal and professional philosophy of nursing associated with this issue.

There are many major challenges facing the nursing shortage environment today. One of those challenges includes the facility recruitment of registered nurses and then the facility retention of the registered nurses that they have recruited. Factors to consider would be as to why a registered nurse chose to accept a particular job and will they choose to stay at the facility after being given an employment opportunity. A facility’s reputation, union status, autonomy and salary are among some of the factors that influence recruitment. Factors that influence retention includes the inclusion in decision making, practice

Before we can examine the consequences of high nurse turnover, we must examine the reasons nurses choose to leave their employer and look elsewhere for work.

If staffing has that big of a negative impact on the residents, then why is the nursing turnover rate so high? This article suggests there are “workplace and organizational factors associated with the nursing turnover” including “professional development opportunities, employee benefits, human resource retention strategies, leadership practices, supervisory support, work environment and nursing staff burnout” (Chu, Walter, McGilton, 2013). In order to address this problem, researchers utilized the ‘stress process model’ to address the causation of stress for nurses to try and eliminate the source, which would decrease the negative outcomes it presents for the residents and other staff members. This model focuses on individual

Nursing shortage refers as a difference between supply and demand of registered nurses (RN) and turnover refers to the loss of an employee due to transfer, termination, or resignation (Huber, 2014). Worldwide, Hospitals are experiencing nursing shortage despite of intervention and innovation attempt. Nursing shortages can lead to longer working hours under stressful situation that can result in fatigue, burnout, medical errors, mistake, and job dissatisfaction which can endanger patients’ safety and quality of care (American Nurses Association, 2015). Hospital leaning toward the profit making is also adding up nursing dissatisfaction. Therefore, visionary leader and manager can help to resolve these issues and promote the friendly working environment to reduce the nursing shortage, turnover, dissatisfaction and safety issues. In this paper, the writer explains the necessary steps that manager and leaders need to take to minimize the nursing shortage based on philosophy of nursing, organizational structure along with the writer’s personal approach finding the solution of the problem.

Nursing turnover has been a well-documented issue with regards to retention of competent staff in health care facilities throughout the country (Cartledge, 2001). Turnover is simply defined by Sullivan as the vacating of positions by staff; however, nursing turnover is a phenomenon that must be understood and guarded against (Sullivan, 2013). The effects of turnover can be seen in many aspects of health care including: financial loss, opportunity costs, decreased morale, and shortage of staff. Ultimately turnover becomes an issue where the ability to provide quality care is limited by a lack of experienced nurses (Cartledge, 2001). In fact, the Department of Health recognizes the retention of employees as pivotal to development of increasing ability to provide care for critically ill individuals (Cartledge, 2001).

Retaining a stable and sufficient supply of nurses is an important hospital and nationwide concern. Numerous factors affecting retention of registered nurses comprises of practice autonomy, managerial respect, workload, and inclusion in decision making, flexible schedules, education, and pay (“Recruitment”, 2013). Hospitals not capable of retaining qualified registered nurses may result in the loss of experienced and knowledgeable staff. Additionally this will lower hospital productivity during this transition. High turnover rates for registered nursing staff may also impact job fulfillment and nursing moral altogether. Retaining qualified registered nurses will enhance patient care quality and satisfaction.

Introduction explain, research of the article is clear. For example, in the United States, nursing workforce projections indicate the registered nurse (RN) shortage may exceed 500,000 RNs by 2025 (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2010; Cipriano, 2006; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002). In 2008, the national RN vacancy rate in the United States was greater than 8% (AACN, 2010). Statement of the Problem: Introduction did not explain “why nurses are leaving from the bedside nursing. The problem statement could be worded more clearly and directly. The introduction is completed with a clear statement of purpose for the current study

Rondeau et al. (2008) reported that lack of awareness pertaining to the significant changes of employee market factors in nursing turnover and vacancy. Effective and efficient nurses retention strategies are some of the ways to handle with turnover in healthcare organizations, not all reasons for turnover are employer

The nursing shortage can have an enormous impact in the healthcare system. If we continue to see a decline in nurses, the healthcare system could potentially crumble. Nurses are the majority of the hospital and clinical settings and help take care of the ill patients. According to Kovner, Brewer, Fatehi, and Jun (2014), there is a poor working environment seen there are companies with an increased turnover rate. The challenges are the decreased ability to hire enough nursing staff to keep up with the demand of patients. Some of the problems are due to the fact that many of the RN’s today are reaching retirement age, the lack of faculty, and the

Prevention measures are readily available and can be used to reduce nurse retention rates. Multiple studies have been conducted consisting of various surveys that evaluate the reasoning behind nurses leaving the profession completely, their intention to leave the healthcare facility or department, and factors contributing to burnout. By identifying the factors and weak points of the healthcare facilities from the results of the surveys conducted in each study, ideas of implementations arise in efforts

Work overload due to nurse shortage, low salaries and additional factors as expected nurse conduct and behavior standards, in addition of competition with other recruitment countries have made recruitment and marinating the right nurse with the right qualification harder every year. Therefore, within this review we would examine causes that lead to this high turnover and try to provide effective solution for each cause.