Five Factors Can Keep Nurses On The Job

Satisfaction, organizational commitment, autonomy, opportunities for promotion, and fewer outside job opportunities: These 5 factors can help stop new nurses from leaving their jobs and, in turn, save money for health systems.

In studying 1933 newly licensed registered nurses working in hospitals nationwide, researchers learned that nurses' intent to stay at a job is influenced by their perceptions of their working conditions, specific workplace attributes, their own personal characteristics, and available job opportunities.

Understanding the factors that affect whether a new nurse will stay at a healthcare setting can help hospital managers better direct their resources and keep their workforce stable, and is particularly important in the face of the shortfall of 500 000 nurses expected by the year 2024, according to Christine Kovner, PhD, RN. “If nurses stay in their jobs, hospitals and the healthcare system will realize significant savings on costs associated with replacing nursing staff,” said Dr Kovner, a professor at New York University's College of Nursing and the lead author of the study, which was published in the March/April issue of Nursing Economics.

As much as 5% of a hospital's budget may be eaten up by costs associated with nursing turnover.

“More important,” continued Dr Kovner when announcing her team's findings, “patient outcomes are at stake because when the nursing staff is destabilized by frequent resignations and high turnover, the disruption and inconsistency of service can have a negative impact on patient care and safety.”

Dr Kovner and her colleagues identified the following characteristics as increasing the likelihood that new registered nurses would be satisfied with their job and committed to their organizations:
• variety
• autonomy
• supervisory support
• workgroup cohesion
• procedural justice (rights are applied universally to all employees)
• promotional opportunities
• collegial relations between doctors and nurses.

Variables that reduced nurses' commitment to their jobs included a high workload, organizational constraints, and mandatory overtime.