I enjoyed reading your problem memo on registered nurse retention. As a Nurse Manager in Per-operative Services I can relate to this topic. Nurse retention is so very important. I am happy to say in my unit the turnover rate is low. When someone does leave the reasons were moving closer to home, spouse job re-location and job promotions. From personal experience I dread it when a staff member leaves. It takes at least 2 months for Nurse Recruitment to find someone, then the interviewing and hiring process takes long and another 3 months to train someone. So basically the unit can be short one staff member for about 6 to 8 months. Even when only one staff member leaving can place a strain on the unit. Your paragraph about the costs associated with high turnovers was very interesting and informative.
Having high turnover can lead to inappropriate staffing levels. Inappropriate staffing levels can lead to increased length of stay, complications, excessive workload, nurse and patient dissatisfaction, and high turn overrates, to name a few. It is a vicious cycle.
I agree with you hospital administrators do need to pay attention to the reasons why staff leave and need to come up with creative solutions to retention nurses. I look forward to your presentation on this topic.
Susan,
I loved reading your post! I’m lucky to work on a unit that I love. Over the past 4 years that I have been there we have had two managers both of whom I admire. You mentioned that the national turnover rate if approximately 14 percent for bedside registered nurses and 28 percent for new hire nurses which I found very interested. I recently read Shannon’s post on nurse to patient ratio which was a great read, you might like it! I found that her post discussed the importance of nurse to patient ratio that makes nurses happy and stay at their job. I liked reading the 5 top reasons that most nurses leave their jobs. You had many strong arguments that I think would make your policy successful.
Thank you for your memo on nurse retention. As you stated, it is extremely costly for an organization to have high turnover. Nursing is such a great career choice because the options are endless. Nurse can choose to work at the bedside in acute care settings, outpatient clinics for insurance companies. I met one nurse that actually worked a call in support line from home. No wonder it is a challenge for nurse leaders to make the bedside an enticing place to stay when mandatory overtime, nights, weekends and working holidays are a must. However, I truly believe it can be done through finding ways to increase nursing job satisfaction. On jointcommision.org the recognize the high cost of turnover. They stated that the “ultimately, nurse dissatisfaction costs the hospital dearly in high replacement cost, resulting increases in patient care costs and lowered bottom lines. Most importantly, the evidence suggests that among the highest cost of high turnover is greater patient mortality.”
Another great point you touched on is reimbursement from CMS especially now that patient satisfaction is factored into an institutions reimbursement rates. Commonsense would follow if you have a high turnover rate, inexperienced nurses that patient satisfaction would be lower.
Thank you all for such positive feedback. @cb165814 (Katie Barrie) I would love to hear your arguments. I’ll try to get in touch after the next class.
Hi Susan,
I enjoyed reading your problem memo on registered nurse retention. As a Nurse Manager in Per-operative Services I can relate to this topic. Nurse retention is so very important. I am happy to say in my unit the turnover rate is low. When someone does leave the reasons were moving closer to home, spouse job re-location and job promotions. From personal experience I dread it when a staff member leaves. It takes at least 2 months for Nurse Recruitment to find someone, then the interviewing and hiring process takes long and another 3 months to train someone. So basically the unit can be short one staff member for about 6 to 8 months. Even when only one staff member leaving can place a strain on the unit. Your paragraph about the costs associated with high turnovers was very interesting and informative.
Having high turnover can lead to inappropriate staffing levels. Inappropriate staffing levels can lead to increased length of stay, complications, excessive workload, nurse and patient dissatisfaction, and high turn overrates, to name a few. It is a vicious cycle.
I agree with you hospital administrators do need to pay attention to the reasons why staff leave and need to come up with creative solutions to retention nurses. I look forward to your presentation on this topic.
Susan,
I loved reading your post! I’m lucky to work on a unit that I love. Over the past 4 years that I have been there we have had two managers both of whom I admire. You mentioned that the national turnover rate if approximately 14 percent for bedside registered nurses and 28 percent for new hire nurses which I found very interested. I recently read Shannon’s post on nurse to patient ratio which was a great read, you might like it! I found that her post discussed the importance of nurse to patient ratio that makes nurses happy and stay at their job. I liked reading the 5 top reasons that most nurses leave their jobs. You had many strong arguments that I think would make your policy successful.
Thank you for your memo on nurse retention. As you stated, it is extremely costly for an organization to have high turnover. Nursing is such a great career choice because the options are endless. Nurse can choose to work at the bedside in acute care settings, outpatient clinics for insurance companies. I met one nurse that actually worked a call in support line from home. No wonder it is a challenge for nurse leaders to make the bedside an enticing place to stay when mandatory overtime, nights, weekends and working holidays are a must. However, I truly believe it can be done through finding ways to increase nursing job satisfaction. On jointcommision.org the recognize the high cost of turnover. They stated that the “ultimately, nurse dissatisfaction costs the hospital dearly in high replacement cost, resulting increases in patient care costs and lowered bottom lines. Most importantly, the evidence suggests that among the highest cost of high turnover is greater patient mortality.”
Another great point you touched on is reimbursement from CMS especially now that patient satisfaction is factored into an institutions reimbursement rates. Commonsense would follow if you have a high turnover rate, inexperienced nurses that patient satisfaction would be lower.
Thank you all for such positive feedback. @cb165814 (Katie Barrie) I would love to hear your arguments. I’ll try to get in touch after the next class.