Nurse Retention in Hospitals

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I was just wondering.... for those of you who are already nurses, or for those of you who have worked in hospitals, what have you seen hospitals do to ensure they have higher nurse retention rates? Besides the general good insurance plans, etc..have any of you seen hospitals going above and beyond to make their nurses happy?

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Specializes in Orthopedic, LTC, STR, Med-Surg, Tele.

Adequate staffing! It's amazing!!! :rolleyes:

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Thank you! I was thinking of incentive programs or special perks..wasn't even thinking about adequate staffing!

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Specializes in Pedi.

Ha! My former hospital had a "Recruitment and Retention" committee that did things like make power point presentations on how nurses are happier and provide better patient care when they get breaks. Guess what happened with that? Right, nothing.

The only time anyone ever asked what they could do/could have done to retain me was when I did my exit interview with HR. And even then, it was only asked because it was a question on the exit interview form.

This hospital's attitude was "if you don't like the way we do things, we'll lay out the red carpet and don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out." There's some cheap new grad just waiting to take your spot.

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That's such a shame. I have less than a year left of nursing school and we are constantly being told how to provide the best nursing care. But it seems like once you get out there hospitals are not worried about the quality of nursing care their staff provides, it's just a business to them.

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Specializes in L & D; Postpartum.

Our place doesn't really seem to care about retention. They are big on recruitment, though. It's not going well, but they are big on it.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

most hospitals are far more focused on recruitment than retention.

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Specializes in HIV, Psych, GI, Hepatology, Research.

It's all business. Dealing with insurance companies will open your eyes to that fact. It's amazing.

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Specializes in tele, oncology.

Unfortunately right now nurses are a dime a dozen, and they know it. And they treat us that way.

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