Nurse Retention ideas

eskimoRN · Sep 19, 2015

Alot of great points have already been made, but don't forget that nurses are rewarded by more than just money. Does your hospital have a high c-section rate? High post-op infection rate? Always low on supplies? Nurses want to be able to go home and feel like they did a great job for their patients and they can't do that with poor staffing, lack of supplies, clueless docs or bad management. Nurses don't like being set up to fail, they will work very hard for their patients up to a point but once they realize they are working against an entire system that puts money before the patient they generally want to leave. Yes, I'm generalizing and I know there are lots of nurses who really only care about pay, but make sure you are setting employees up for success, they have everything they need to do a great job. Me personally, I work in a SNF, I am applying to hospitals near me, but my preferred one is the small community hospital which ia unionized, 4-6 patients per nurse, zero post-op infections, low c-section rate, and mission statement is a simple "to provide the best quality patient care." No magnet status bullcrap, no all-BSN's by 2020, just setting out the care for the patients the best you can. Everyone says why don't you want to work at Local General Hospital, they pay $1 more an hour, well, to me $1 more an hour doesn't make up for a crappy work environment :)

rnbabyzoo · Sep 19, 2015

This is why I left my most recent job.

1. Nurse to patient ratio on average I had 10 to 12 patients each shift. As soon as I would discharge one I had another admission added. There is so much computer work to discharge a patient it could take up to an hour to complete one discharge then was strapped with an admission, thanks.

Also I was a preceptor for my shift the person who made the schedule would think I have a helper and I could take more patients, so I could have up to 18 patients. Charge nurse didn't care if this was only the 2 day the person was on the floor. When I would say anything I was told there was no additional staff to take patients so suck it up and do it. Who cares that the new employee is struggling because I'm not able to teach them, and what impression this leaves in their mind. Month later they were quitting. AND who cares about the care you are giving and my license.

2. Management is clueless about how things run on the floor let's stay in our office from 8-5 and not talk to the staff, lock the door when someone comes around. Only talk to us by email and doesn't respond to us emailing them back. Oh and not ask if I would like to be a preceptor or super user of the pumps system. I was told through email it's a privlige to be chosen and I couldn't back out. Favorite saying "that only happens in theory we are in the real world" for every request.

nurseactivist · Sep 19, 2015

My entire work life has been with a nursing union. In my opinion , nursing unions are not as aggressive in securing the best contract deals compared to other unions, especially considering nursing is a hard-to-find skill compared to the other non-healthcare skills. What we get as nurses should be influenced by the law-of-supply and demand of nurses. A BA liberal arts is a diem a dozen for example. The very idea of requiring a license to practice, in itself introdcues scaricity of supply. The recent move to hire BSNs insteads of ADNs further restricts the nmumber of qualified applicants. Dont ever believe that there is an oversupply I told her. My nursing manager for one is so out-of-date she just believes everything the hospital feeds her. I pointed it out to her - in my state, they are offering sign on bonuses. When that hiring practice occurs, it means there are not enough applicants! I really don't know why my unions (2 odf them) seem not as effective at contract negiotiations. When I contract my nursing rep for some questions or issues, she takes forever to respond. She almost always does not want to respond in print(email), she wants to talk over the phone. She has no clue about legal stuff. And so my hospital always wronly and malicioulsy points to my union as the party who wants certain restrictions in the employment. After a while I gave up on talkinmg to her.

You are the Union. Have you every considered getting involved? Have you every watched a bargaining session? Bargaining teams are made up of regular nurses. Run the for the bargaining team?

vandiola · Sep 19, 2015

In the UK we have one main nursing union that has in the past said they don't want nursing wages to be high, in case it attracts the wrong kind of people :facepalm: It's a shame our own union doesn't recognise our worth. Attrition is a big problem in the NHS. There's no real way to increase wages here as they are set by the department of health, but some trusts have provided relocation money, gym offers, train discounts, restaurant and shopping discounts etc to entice people.

vintagemother, BSN, CNA, LVN, RN · Sep 19, 2015

Money. Plus morale. Low wages stops nurses from applying, as well as stops them from staying.

Morale...well it has to do with how respected you feel as a nurse. When nurses see a colleague get fired or written up for things that others aren't written up for, it creates a poor work environment.

I also think that supporting nurses who want to continue in their nursing related education would be a great asset. Even if a facility isn't able to pay for tuition, what about simply accommodating a reasonable change to work hrs?

My facility lost a great many nurses for these reasons. I was left wondering, "are we that disposable?" And "They'd rather hire new grads and new nurses to the specialty than work with the experienced and dedicated current staff."

Sad state of affairs.

NurseFifty · Sep 20, 2015

To CCU-Flight RN, what has your hospital done to find out what nurses want?

RuthRo · Sep 20, 2015

I worked for 14 years in a NICU with extremely low turnover. It came down to leadership. Our manager was the epitome of what a leader should be. I once said that if Carol came in and said we all needed to go to hell that day to work, we would only ask what we needed to take with us. She always had our back, gave the credit for successes to us, advocated for us to upper management and grieved with us when we were unable to change something due to laws or regulations. But she was always positive and would say "If we have to swallow the poison, let's at least find a way to make it taste good". She made every effort to make the staffing patterns with our input, asked the staff to cut some slack for the nurse who was going thru a stressful, personal issue. She got to know each nurse personally as well as professionally and felt that if you hired a woman, you hired her whole family. Yes, money is good but without a strong, supportive leader, you have nothing. Thanks Carol!!

CCU-Flight RN · Sep 21, 2015

Not much. They've put together a retention committee to find out what people want but shoot down any recommendations that are made citing that the funds are not available. That being said supposedly system wide they're paying a million per day to travel agencies which somehow makes more sense than retention bonuses or decent raises.

sailornurse · Sep 21, 2015

My facility used to give out the strangest things, all emblazoned with the logo. They've since done away with it, but I'd much rather have gotten cash than stuff that I don't use.

For Nurses Day one facility used to give out crappy stuff, like cheap calculators that did not even work for one shift! It was so insulting! I gave back the insulated lunch pail, lanyards etc. Why do hospital administrators/Chief Nursing Officers think this is ok?

It is about the money, money talks. Don't hire new grads that make more then current nursing staff.