Staff Retention Policies

[Positive_Outlook]

I work on a great unit that's trying to come up with incentives to make staff want to stay on our floor for a long time. We have decided to make a retention policy and are brainstorming ideas such as no floating after 10 years, no holidays after 15 years, etc. Do any of you have units that do this or have some ideas to add to a policy like this?

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

In my experience, the flight risks aren't the nurses with 10+ years on the unit, it's the younger new grads and new hires who aren't married, don't have kids, and can leave to find something better at the drop of a hat. In order to retain the nurses at highest risk for attrition, you have to appeal to your entire staff base including the newer nurses (rather than simply rewarding the highest seniority nurses).

The promise of a bonus or incentive at the 10 or 15 year mark isn't sufficient incentive for a new hire to stick around that long; you have to make it a desirable place to work at this moment (reasonable ratios, reasonable salary, reasonable management).

Agreed, new nurses aren't going to stick around for some extra benny 10-15 years down the road. New RN's are aware of the many options out there and there will be some turnover regardless of what a hospital does, but the best way to decrease that is decent pay and staffing ratios. Pay people what they are worth and have safe, fair staffing ratios, add in a no lift environment and have a float pool and weekend RN's so regular staff can have more weekends and holidays off and people will want to stay.

But as another OP stated current management practices have decided churn is acceptable and a given since they intend to run as short staffed as they can get away with legally!

[guest940422]

free onsite parking after 10 years