Nursing Shortage and Nurse Turnover

Nursing shortage has been a global problem that need to be eradicated in order to promote patient care and improve care outcomes. Nursing shortage in America has caused a lot of negative impact on the nurses, patients and nursing profession. It has caused a lot of dissatisfaction on the part of the nurses and the patients (Nardi & Gyurko, 2013). Nurses are prone to injuries, stress and burn-out as a result of nursing shortages. They engaged in working long hours to compensate their coworkers and ensure completion of assigned jobs. They end up breaking down emotionally, physically and psychologically due to poor work-environment and

Current literature continues to reiterate the indicators of a major shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in the United States. The total RN population has been increasing since 1980, which means that we have more RNs in this country than ever before (Nursing Shortage). Even though the RN population is increasing, it is growing at a much slower rate then when compared to the rate of growth of the U.S. population (Nursing Shortage). We are seeing less skilled nurses “at a time of an increasingly aging population with complex care

Nursing turnover is a great contributor to the shortage of nurses being experienced. It is believed that about 18% of new nurses leave their jobs within the first year with a national average registered nurse

There are many challenges facing today’s nursing leaders and managers. From staffing and scheduling, to budget cuts and reduced reimbursements, today’s nursing leaders must evolve to meet the ever changing health care environment. Constance Schmidt, Chief Nursing Officer at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center (CRMC), identified retaining experienced registered nurses (RN) as one of the biggest problems she faces as a nursing leader. She went on to state “Nationally, most hospitals have more than 60% of their nurses with at least 5 years of experience. At CRMC, it’s the reverse. We have more than 60% of our nurses with less than 5 years of experience” (personal communication, March 28, 2014). The two largest factors affecting those numbers are the nursing shortage and nursing retention. The first, the nursing shortage, was identified years ago and has been researched countless times. Some projections indicate the number representing the gap between available registered nurses, and the positions needing to be filled, could be over a million before the end of the current decade. The latter, retention of nurses, is a problem in every health care facility in the nation. Nursing turnover results in both a significant financial cost to hospitals, and a significant impact on the community through its effects on patient outcome.

The nursing shortage in healthcare has been a highlighted issue for many years. With the ever-growing health care system, hospitals and healthcare facilities often find themselves searching for ways to acquire new nurses and retain their very own. Throughout the years, the number one solution to this problem remains the same: decreasing nurse turnover, and increasing nurse retention. This paper discusses the causes of high nurse turnover rate, the negative effects on health care, and ways to improve the turnover rate.

According to Huber, (2010) nursing shortage is defined as the occurrence where the demand (the number of nurses a company is willing to employ) is greater than the available supple of nurses willing to work at the proposed rate of pay. This definition goes beyond the word understaffing because it can be caused by several factors. These include but are not limited to less than desirable working conditions or tight budgeting in an attempt to cut costs. Turnover is defined as the cessation of employment or membership in an organization. Research on nursing shortage and turnover indicate that the basis of the problem correlates to low wages, the nature of work, poor working conditions and

With more than 7.08 billion people in the world and growing the demand for more medical services is inevitable, along with this increase in population more registered nurses are required to help. “According to the July 2001 report, Nursing Workforce: Emerging Nurse Shortages Due to Multiple Factors, a serious shortage of nurses is expected in the future as demographic pressures influence both supply and demand”; it is important we bring attention to this issue (Nursing Shortage). Nurses are essential to providing the safest care and improvement of patients all over the world.

Nurse ratio can be influenced but not eliminated. However, in the nursing profession, there is a great need to retain nurses and keep turnover rates low because of the negative effects that high turnover has on patients, nurses and health care organizations. Nurse retention is especially important during times of nursing shortage. In a climate where there may not be enough supply to keep up with the demand, it is vital to utilize strategies to retain competent nurses and prevent turnover in order to maintain the highest quality of patient care.

One of the significant health issues which can affect patients, organizations and nurses in determining some outcomes especially with the employment stability, the lack of materials needed, as well as financially is when there is a turnover of nurses. negativeOne of the major health issues that can negatively affect patients, nurses and organizations outcomes, even the financial in-stability and material shortage is nursing turnover. According to Hayes, (2008) nursing turnover is specifically defined as “the process whereby nursing staff leave or travel within the hospital environment”. Turnover can be either internal or external – according to the position of the turnover relative to the main hospital or organization-; internal turnover usually

The overall focus of this research study is to investigate nursing turnover in Canadian hospitals while primarily looking at the impact and key determinants of nurse turnover as well as the implication this has for management on nursing units. The methods data sources in this study include a nurse survey, unit managers, medical records and human resources databases. Also, a broad sample of hospitals in Canada were represented with nine different types of nursing units. In this study, they have concluded that nurse’s turnover is an immense problem in Canadian hospitals with a mean turnover rate of 19.9%. This research study shows role ambiguity and role conflict to be a major influence on nurse turnover, therefore role clarity and feedback regarding

One of the factors impacting the nursing shortage is the aging of employees in the field. The nursing field will continue to age, and the shortage of nurses will become scarcer. According to Steven M. Barney who uses Selis statistics, “[n]early 70 percent of nurses today are over 40, and only 9 percent of all registered nurses are under 30” (1). The shortage of nurses is a result of the innumerable of aging nurses in the workforce. As soon as these older nurses retire, only a small part of registered nurses who are still learning are going to be employed. The younger nurses with very fewer working experience will have a lot of more frustration without having the experienced nurses to help out. These younger nurses will feel the urge to leave

The growing of turnover rate among Saudi nurses threatens the quality of care provided to patients and the health care organizations productivity. The government spends their financial resources in equipping vacant positions by increasing nursing colleges and recruitment expatriate nurses as solutions for this issue. However, The Minister of Health does not pay attention to main cause of the turnover that is lack of qualified leaders and managers. Poor of the healthcare system management creates unhealthy work place environment where decreases their willingness and effectiveness. The lowering of nursing retention puts pressure on nurses who are on the position, which leads to work overload, burnout, decrease moral and finally more turnover.

The World Health Organization reveals that most countries across the globe are experiencing nursing shortage regardless of their economic standing (Senior, 2010). In Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information [CIHI] (2006) projected a shortage of 113,000 nurses across the country by 2016. On the other hand, the province of Ontario continuously faces shortage in nursing workforce (Koroll, 2014) as CIHI (2012) reported that the number of nurses per 100,000 Ontarians dropped from 718 to 699 on 2009 and 2012 respectively. The province ranked as second to the lowest nurse to population ratio in the country with seven nurses for every 1000 residents (Greenway, 2014) and that it requires 18,000 nurses to address the health care needs of the public (Ontario Nurses Association, n.d.). Basu and Gupta (2007) also explained that more nurses are retiring while the demand for their service is increasing due to the escalating aging population, advancement in healthcare technology, increasing healthcare complexities, and negative perceptions of nursing conditions. The shortage of nurses causes long wait and frustrating wait times in any healthcare setting, decrease quality in patient care, and poor working conditions in the nursing profession (Canadian Nursing Association [CNA], 2015; Ogilvie, 2014). It progressively becomes worse yearly (Russel, 2008) and if no realistic and achievable measures to be implemented, the needs of the growing and aging population would be

The health care industry has been experience for many century the shortage of nurses. It is perceive by the health care industry the shortage of nursing supply than the demand across the country. The demand for nurses in every health care organization growth in a daily basic as the technology advance. The consumers are always demanding for more personalize and quality of health care services at the time they are seeking for health care delivery creating nurses supply to be less in every health organization. A few probable reasons for nursing shortage within the health care industry can be the number of nurses in the workforce with a close retiring date,

reports and initiate recommendations in the clinical area. In the current paper the nurse will analyze 10 research report on nursing turnover. An annotated bibliography of 10 articles related to the problem will be discussed. This is by no means an exhaustive list. The research