Nursing Retention

 

Nicole Leftenant

College of Central Florida

NUR4827

Dr. Sorrentino

11/20/2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nursing Retention

            Although nursing is a respected career field, there are great difficulties for employers to maintain nursing staff, especially in hospitals. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic did not help matters only making nursing more difficult leading to increased nurse burnout. Not only has COVID-19 impacted nursing, but studies show that an alarming 21% of nurses hope to leave patient care, and 10% hope to leave nursing all together (7 ways to improve nurse retention, 2021). Nurse retention refers to the ability of employers to maintain their skilled nursing staff, rather than losing them to competing employers (7 ways to improve nurse retention, 2021).

            Being a travel nurse currently, I experience many different nursing units throughout a years’ time. I’ve had the pleasure of working on my current unit for about six months total now. It is a medical/surgical unit, consisting of 48 beds. The hospital is a large hospital with multiple medical/surgical units consisting of different specialties, hence my unit only having 48 basic medical/surgical beds. It may sound unbelievable, but there are only currently 14 core nursing staff members, with the gap being made up by agency and travel RNs. In 2018 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were approximately 40+ core RN staff between day and night shift, with few agency/travel staff. Now, with the pandemic offering great travel positions for RNs to make the greatest amount of money in the least amount of time, as well as an increase in burnout, the unit is experiencing a saddening turnover rate for nursing staff. Weekly, new travel nurses join the team at an attempt to keep the unit functioning.

           

            According to the American Journal of Nursing (2019), the answer to nursing retention is promoting engagement, and improving job satisfaction. Facilities would also benefit from a structured framework to follow to promote nursing satisfaction, such as a magnet resignation (Morris, 2019). Personally, an environment that is filled with teamwork, open communication, and organization is exactly what I seek as a nurse, along with benefits such as paid time off, medical insurance, and excellent management, of course. Benefits such as those above can help increase nurse retention and decrease nurse turnover, reducing the need for travel staff and promoting a work environment in which a team works well together, improving patient quality of care. If there were one way that I would recommend increasing nurse retention, it would be to increase communication. When nursing staff can openly communicate their needs or concerns to management, without the risk of shaming or not being taken seriously, they may feel more validated in their position on the unit. Effective communication can decrease nurse turnover rates and improve job satisfaction (7 ways to improve nurse retention, 2021). Nurse managers should be well educated on effective communication, and there should be educational training courses on effective communication as routine refreshers.

 

References

7 ways to improve nurse retention. Post University. (2021, August 6). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://post.edu/blog/how-to-improve-nurse-retention/.

Morris, E. (2019). Increasing nurse retention. AJN, American Journal of Nursing, 119(8), 10. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.naj.0000577344.79136.9b