Why does Texas Children's Hospital have such high nursing turnover lately?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

From the CNO:

My Promise

"I know some of your colleagues have left, and some of you right now are thinking of leaving. We've hired 405 nurses since October 2014, but sadly 196 nurses have left during the same time. I can only make good on my promises if you stay and work with me."

I am sad to see this because in my eyes, Texas Children's hospital is on my list of the top 5 best children's hospitals to work at from what I have heard from friends and co-workers.

This is an 82% annual new hire turnover rate which is astonishing. What's going on there? Why are they are hemorrhaging nurses?

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I'm curious as well. I have an interview coming up soon at Texas Children's. That number is astonishing!

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Probably because they have endless opportunities to transfer within. When a nurse transfers to another unit it counts as someone leaving. Also, the hospital is expanding so nurses move to new units. A lot of nurses also go to school and get promoted or move on with advanced degrees.

It's the best hospital I've ever worked in.

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Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

I think many of the top hospitals go through this. Either transfer, move up (especially if affiliated with a university), or they get X hospital on their resume and go back home to where they couldn't get a job as a new grad.

I work at one of the top 10 and we have that problem too. Either staff has been there 30 years or 3. Not much in the middle.

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Quote from the CNO in the article:

"I promise to create a foundation of trust and transparency. If you know me – and many of you do – you know I am a straight shooter, and I expect others to be the same with me. I place incredible value on fostering honest, open communication. So let's be open, truly open, starting right now. The experience of working here as a nurse is not what it should be, and I know we can do better. I know you deserve better."

This Is the statement that makes me question "What is going on at Texas Children's Hospital in regards to nurses?" Obviously something is.

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Specializes in Acute Care Pediatrics.

My guess is it's along the same lines as what is happening where I work. I work at a large children's hospital. As we have grown, and as our reputation has grown, so has our patient load. Long gone are the days of slow summers and empty holidays. We have more patients, higher acuity, and the big guys at the top think we can continue to work without adjustments. Our staffing ratios suck. Acute care pediatrics is emotionally taxing at the best of times, but when you feel like you are not supported it is truly exhausting. :(

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Specializes in Cardiac ICU, ER, PICU, Corrections.

I did PICU for 2 years. I honestly just got burnt out!

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Yup. These kidos are very sick. It's tough sometimes.

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Specializes in pediatric, PICU.

It's mainly because the old CNO tried this "re-invention" that demoted seasoned nurses from leadership positions because they didn't have a BSN, only to place new grads there. The affected nurses felt disrespected and hurt, so many left or transferred. She also screwed nurses over by taking over their holiday schedule. She just wasn't pro-nursing. Luckily, Mary Jo has been working at TCH for forever and she canceled the "re-invent."

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