System Theory Of Nurse Turnover

With the prevalence of nursing shortages, more specialty units are now hiring new graduate nurses in positions that were once reserved for experienced nurses (Maiocco, G., 2003).

The broad research problem leading to this study is the belief that nursing shortage in facilities leads to patient safety issues. The review of available literature on this topic shows strong evidence that lower nurse staffing levels in hospitals are associated with worse patient outcomes. Some of these outcomes include very high patient to nurse ratio, fatigue for nurses leading to costly medical mistakes, social environment, nursing staff attrition from the most affected facilities. The study specifically attempts to find a way to understand how nurse

Current internal and external hospital stressors are impacting NCs nursing shortage. With the release of many reports from different sources suggesting a change is needed. Most have been accurate in their projections; however, the struggle continues. Strong implications for the direction the crisis is heading, from campaign research to thesis and dissertations, written by professional groups and organizations add credibility to the cause; however, the shortage remains. Although some would argue that job satisfaction has no bearing on the nursing shortage and more pressing problems are prevalent; for example, the ageing population, undereducated nurses, patient safety and more positive patient outcomes; therefore, this paper highlights suggestions for change, with a concentration on nursing dissatisfaction and the nursing shortage.

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.

This issue is important to address because having an increased workload can have detrimental issues such as mental frustration and physical exhaustion. The conclusion of this study is that it calls for action to take place in the health care system. It is important to investigate these problems, so there can be modifications made by management to the health care systems to overall decrease the nursing shortage.

The current and growing shortage of nurses is posing a real threat to the ability of hospitals, long-term care facilities, and others to provide timely access to quality care. Nurse staffing shortages and nurse turn-over contributes to the growing reduction in the number of staffed patient beds available for services, increasing costs, and rising concerns about the quality of care. Health care organizations highly depend on nurse managers and leaders to reverse this trend. This paper discusses the reasons for nursing shortage and turn-over, different approaches to solve this issue, and my personal philosophy about this issue.

Nursing shortages and turnover rates are becoming increasingly detrimental issues occurring in the health care system today. Why are nurses leaving their jobs more frequently? What can be done to retain nurses in a health care organization? These are just a few questions that need to not only be asked by nursing leaders and managers, but also ones that need to be answered. The increased nursing turnover rates create several implications with regards to patient care, employee satisfaction, and financial burden on the health care organization.

The reasons for this national crisis are multifactorial, but 1 important component is the accelerated departure of nurses from their profession. Turnover, or lack of retention of qualified personnel in the job environment, occurs frequently in critical care nursing, with reported annual rates exceeding 25% to 60%. Accordingly, reducing the ICU nurse turnover rate is a high priority for nursing and health care leaders.

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

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

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).

Increasing Hospital Nurse Retention A healthcare facility has known for many decades for the continuously assistance of nurses, facilities around the world an encounter an increase of nursing shortages. Nurse Executives also have in mind the financial impact nurse retention and nurse turnover have on the organization. End result, nurses cost tens of thousands of dollars to recruit and train. A better-quality hiring and recruiting process possibly will result in not only enhanced retention and reduced turnover; however include also several constructive benefits including financial, patient satisfaction and quality of care.

Nurse turnover is defined as “the number of nurses changing jobs within an organization or leaving an organization within a given year” (Baumann 2010). Retaining nurses is one of the most important issues in health care as its effects range from challenges in human resource planning, to high costs in financial and organizational productivity (Beecroft et al, 2008), to workgroup processes and morale, to patient safety and quality of care (i.e. patient satisfaction, length of patient stay, patient falls, and medication errors) (Bae et al, 2010). Nursing Solutions Inc (NSI) reported the national average turnover rate for hospitals increased from 13.5% in 2012 to 14.7% last year. Nurses working in Med/Surg had more turnover

According to Paller (2012), the nursing shortage in different countries for example the United States tends not to be the only growing problem, but has also become a complex one. Nursing shortage and nurse's turnover has become the worsening predicament in the health care industry in the United

The global nursing shortage is resulting in the need to find multiple solutions to providing adequate numbers of nursing personnel. The shortage is exacerbated by nurses leaving the profession and their current positions. Globally, nursing turnover rates range from 10–21% per year, with countries such as the USA and Australia reporting turnover rates of over 20% per year. Retaining nurses in their current positions will reduce the magnitude of consequences associated with the nursing shortage (Cowden and Cummings, 2012).