retention

Nurses General Nursing

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Our new DON and ADON are holding a townhall type forum to here what the nurses have to say, complain about etc.. Administration hasd spent a butt load of money on hiring bonuses. 10,000 dollars for a 2 year commitment for experiancced nurses. some of these nurses 2 yrs are ending now and of coorifice they are leaving. I work sicu and after talking to other members of the staff the bigget things for retention seem to be benefits . Ours have been cut every year for the last 3 years. retirement, and monetary acknowledgement of years of service. An example is say a bonus starting at $750 for 5 years and increasing $750 every 5 years of service. My question to you people is what if anything has you employer done to retain staff? and has it worked? :confused:

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Benefits are good where I work, but nurses still leave. Its all about staffing guys.......really. Money talks, but safety and feeling like you have been able to do a good job is essential. Our hospital just hired a bunch of travelers and we have some Phillipino nurses on the way........things are looking up. We also get a bonus every year if we meet our goals....and its usually pretty decent.....right about now!!!!

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Originally posted by baseline

Benefits are good where I work, but nurses still leave. Its all about staffing guys.......really. Money talks, but safety and feeling like you have been able to do a good job is essential. Our hospital just hired a bunch of travelers and we have some Phillipino nurses on the way........things are looking up. We also get a bonus every year if we meet our goals....and its usually pretty decent.....right about now!!!!

I agree 1000% with baseline. Safe Nurse/patient ratios are a high priority. Pride in a job well done is key to satisfaction.

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Specializes in CV-ICU.

I agree that safe nurse/patient ratios are a priority; but so is recognition by others of who you are and also that you are doing a good job; and that we are all the patients' advocate and that is our main purpose for being a hospital. I also need to be learning something new all of the time. Believe it or not; that is why I am still on the same unit after 23 years!

Our unit had a recognition program last spring. Our CV-ICU has a staff of about 100 (from CNAs to HUCs to nurses), 33 of us have been there 10 years or longer. We were presented with these badges that say that too, and most of us wear them pretty faithfully.

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our hospital offers extra pay for departments and shifts that are understaffed. for example nights on ccd pay an extra four dollars an hour. The idea being that if gives incentives to those that are already working there and attracts additional nurses.

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Specializes in NICU.

FT & PT rn's get $20 per hour bonus on top of base pay plus diffs for extra shifts. We can work anything from four hours to a whole 12 hr shift, and they can be scheduled for the shifts when we are short, or picked up when staffing is bad, and the leads start making phone calls. Also we will get a $2000 dollar bonus for FT staff, if we work something like 1600 hours in the year. This may include sick and vacation hours. The extra shift checks come on the Friday between our regular paychecks. Of course, we are the first ones docked if the census is low. This has really helped with our staffing.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

We have clinical ladders - clinical nurse I (new grad) on up to clinical nurse IV (expert with many years in specialty). Clinical nurse IV gets 10% bonus per year paid in two installments. Amounts to about $4000 a year for me (RN with ten years experience). We also have tuition reimbursement of $1800/year and tuition loan repayment of $4800/year.

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Rather than answer the question as asked let me answer in a way that may be useful

Studies show that when asked employees say they want$$. The same studies indicate the reason is because employees have come to learn that they cannot get what they really want. So they will accept $$ in place of thier true desire.

Simple. to be recognized, respected, APPRRECIATED. This is a comodity that employers cannot understand consequently cannot give. They understand something simple Give $$. Giving $$ is EASY actually showing genuine appreciation takes effort.

History has shown us that employers who soar in thier business gave lots of appreciation, respect, and recognition not to themselves or the business but to the employee.

As long as employers think $$ is the answer then they will continue to loose employees when the bonus expires. BECAUSE ALL THEY DID WAS GIVE $$. IF THEY GAVE APPRECIATION IT WOULD NOT MATTER IF THE BONUS RAN OUT PEOPLE WOULD STAY. Unfortuantely too many in management think showing appreciations and giving $$ is the same thing. It is NOT.

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