What retention strategies do your hospitals use???

Nurses Activism

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HI all,

Would like to know what kind of RETENTION programs your hospitals are using????

Baylor weekend incentives, etc. etc??

How has your workplace changed to make you want to stay at your particular location???

Is it money that holds you, working conditions that are acceptable, workplace benefits???

thanks,

Lee:rolleyes:

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.
Originally posted by lee1

Wow, can you give us a hint about where you work???

Sounds great.

Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia. (web address is chkd.org)

We only get 4% contributed by the hospital in our 403B plan and we have no post-retirement benefits. Also, as I said in my previous post, our tuition reimbursement program is weak and is currentl being discussed. At the moment, they pay a maximum of only $1000 per year. However, the basic pay and insurance coverage etc. is competative for our region, our in-house education is extensive, and we don't pay for parking.

In other words, we are not perfect ... but I think the hospital is doing a reasonable job. In particular, I think they are on the right track with those significant retention bonuses. They are trying to reward the people who STAY -- not those who jump from job to job. With the charge nurse and preceptor differentials, they are also trying to reward those who take on the extra responsibility.

llg

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Specializes in Telemetry, Case Management.

Very little. I am going Tuesday and apply to work at the local Ford truck plant. Better pay, better benefits, better retirement. Work might be more physically stressful, but couldn't be possibly any more mentally stressful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

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Specializes in CVICU.

Bottom line if you talk to mgt. they will be the first to tell you... we don't have a shortage and immediately will come up with numbers and % from last year to present etc etc. Yet we see the turnover... people come and go very quickly and the ones that stay are those of us who have children to feed and educate and single or married and have a home and who only know nursing and really enjoy nursing for what it was and what it is.. it is just so much politics now and all a $$$ thing... patient satisfaction??? They talk the talk but they can't even staff us with enough bodies to do the job... but we will go back to work tomorrow.. I Love my work it is not what I am it is WHO I am... so I will continue onward and when I drag in 14 hours later after no lunch break no bladder break I can sleep at night and feel I have done a great job today and I thank God for the health and strength he gave me to get through yet another day...

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Should we do letter writing campaigns to let the public know these sad facts??? Would that help????

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It is hard to believe that of all the nurse on these dicussion boards not more are vocal about retention benefits. I thought that this was the BIG thing that nurses want in their jobs !!!!

So, what do you want, believe hard enough and work toward it and it will be ours.

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Specializes in CVICU.

Yes; my friend it is definitely a HUGE deal with the job... but when it comes down to the REAL DEAL at the JOB and you make mention of your dissatisfaction or even speak about the comparative with the whole ball of wax; even say RETENTION and you may get past your nurse manager but then it comes down to the real deal $$$$ and they will let you go rather than pay you more $$$ or try to accomadate you.. at least at my play of employ. It will be that you are an instigator and troublemaker and they don't want you to infiltrate the masses so see you...just keep doing what you do and be quiet if you don't like it then leave... plently of new grads will do your job at a much lower pay and they will have them sign a contract for 1 year so the hospital knows they have them for a year at least until they reach burn out. Viscious circle... catch -22 sorry but that is how it works. It would take the entire nursing profession universally to stand up and address the issue at hand to make a difference. I am me and yesterday had the most terrible day in years and the patient acuity is so very much higher and believe me the big thing for the day was... Did you do your callbacks on the past few discharges you had at home to see how they liked their hospital stay and how they are doing? That was the priority.. not the 3 out of the 5 patients I had that were ICU material getting blood 2 out of the 3 bad ones and renal failure and peg tube feedings and with epidural caths recieving meds q4 IVP titrating dopamine and cardizem drips and new onset of A-fib and post pacer insertion...it was did I take time to sit down and call my discharges? Check it out... Anyway... today a day off.. I thank God for the day to renew.... :rolleyes:

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Our facility is offering sign-on bonuses for new RN's and LPN's, but no raises for us.

"Keep the staff so busy and tired that they don't have time or energy to look for another job" That is their retention program.

Go to work tomorrow and make a difference. Tell someone in power about something that is bothering you. Maybe they'll listen to you, maybe they'll do something about it. If not at least, you'll feel better.

That's what I'm going to do.

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Specializes in CVICU.
:confused: Let's face it... Personally I go to work because I thoroughly enjoy my work and I make sure that I havea personal repore with my patients and for the day I take into consideration the entire patient .....whatever that may be... but the job is all about the bottom line $$$ and they are making it harder aND HARDER FOR THOSE OF US THAT DO ENJOY OUR WORK TO DO OUR JOB EFFICIENTLY....and the response to that is " you have no idea what it entails to run a facility like this..." Meanwhile the benefits they offer just had our open sign up for open enrollment and the premiums went up the co-pay went up and then in the same sentence they said... " This is your raise for this year..." So check it out and they say that the benefits are the greatest and part of your package deal... what you say is true for the most part.. giving NEW employees sign on bonuses big $$$ but it comes with a sign on the dotted line..those people will get $$$ in increments with contracts for year or more time owed or pay back. A viscous circle as I mentioned earlier...like I say it is who I am not what I am and I go to work and do my very best each day and come home and sleep without a problem and pray for the strength to get up to do it again... but for sure this is not the general concensus.. so much bit--ing at work and complaining and negativity ...hard to keep a positive attitude amongst the group but maybe someday we all will realize we are on the same team working toward the same goal... HELLO... oh well...
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Not one thing.

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Any new ideas come forward from your managements over the last month since we posted this?????

Did any recieve a holiday bonus???

Our contract is about to start to be renegotiated. Supposedly they had wanted to start earlier as they know our salaries are about 15% below other nearby hospitals right now, but have they? NO. There was only a small bonus given $225 because they said our Press Gainey results were not as high as they wanted them despite the fact that the hospital still is making money although not as much as in the past. Will they ever learn?? They cannot replace the 80 some travelers either at this rate until they up the salaries.

Now, they could have given a retention bonus at any time to match the neighboring salaries. Once the word was out hiring would not have been that hard. But, they did not do it. Did they start a Baylor program yet? No, but they still talk about it. So, in effect they do nothing and wonder where the nurses are going.

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Specializes in Interventional Pain Mgmt NP; Prior ICU and L/D RN.

like pretty much everyone else here, the hospital I work at thinks retention is bringing in more travelers, giving sign-on bonuses to new grads and paying them close to what those of us who have worked there for 5 years make, making us work flexed up constantly and always reminding us that we need to do yadda-yadda better!!!

oh yea, retention, foreign language to the administrators. Oh we get offered $4/hr extra for working an 8th shift (96hr total). and it is figured separately from your hourly pay.

RETENTION....is that in the dictionary? HMMMMMMM...maybe for next christmas we should all buy the administrators one; you know those people, the one's who have never wiped anyone's feces up, washed vomit off your scrubs, been hit, kicked, spit at, cussed out, hit with IV poles, etc in their administrative careers. Maybe it would help if they actually had a nursing degree to start with......

Sorry retention issues get me sooooooooo mad!!!!

(and I did see that this was a old post, but couldn't help myself!!)

i fell a little better knowing that the institution I work for respects their loyal staff soooo much:) yea right

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Anyone else have any good ideas that their hospitals have been willing to provide????

Anyone else have upcoming contract negotiations starting??

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