Frustrated at my facility's high turnover

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I am generally happy with my hospital and I like my coworkers. Psych patients can be aggravating, but it's kind of their job, so I'm cool with it. I don't mind training the constant stream of newbies, either. However, dealing with the attrition is getting tiresome. I feel a little battle-weary every time they post another internal position because it means that someone else is leaving.

I don't feel any need to move on yet, but with the number of people who leave every few weeks, it feels like something is wrong with me for being comfortable at this facility. I would love some tips from others who have dealt with this. I have a vacation scheduled soon. Wouldn't it be nice if that helped?

tyvin, BSN, RN

1,620 Posts

Specializes in Hospice / Psych / RNAC.

No advice...the inpatient facility I worked at was the opposite. It took me 3 years to transfer in and once in no one leaves. The only reason I got in is someone retired and I had put my hat in the ring years before. There are some nurse who won't even come when an all come call comes from the psych unit. It takes a certain kind of confidence to deal with the type of patients one gets. You got to know your stuff. It sounds like your place is hiring nurses who think "Oh, piece of cake" and then when they experience it...Ooops!,what the *#%^?

There's nothing wrong with you; you've found your niche.

nursynurseRN

294 Posts

Specializes in TELEMETRY.

I work at a county hospital that has a high turnover in the unit I was hired. I even went per diem from full time. So the reason for the high turnover in this particular place is the co workers on this specific rotation. They tend to alienate the new ppl. Anyway if you like it then stay. People like different things and maybe you just happen to like where you are. Another thing I noticed is new nurses tend to stay at their first job a lot longer then seasoned nurses. Seasoned nurses usually know what's good and what's bad at a facility. When I switched over from a private to a county hospital, I realized that the county hospital was so much more harder then at the private hospital. We have so much more help at the private hospital. For me being a full time nurse at the county was just too stressful. Many nurses can't take it and that's the problem I think with high turnover.

Specializes in Med/surg, Quality & Risk.

I don't know if this is part of the problem, but I've noticed that sometimes this means your clinical manager is a big fat liar.

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