Why such high new RN turnover?

Nurses New Nurse

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My understanding is that new nurses (recent graduates) are the most likely to leave the field. If true, why is this? Is it because they underestimated the job's demands?

Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
nursing schools are churning out new grads at an alarming rate in homage of the almighty dollar. :bowingpur the schools are failing the students by not giving them the reality of the nursing world. heck the schools are still spouting out the rhetoric that there is a nursing shortage! really??? :uhoh3: all in the worship of the almighty dollar. in days gone by there was more clinical time spent on the floors, and before anyone says it i was at a college based program, we spent far more time clinically at the hospitals than programs today. now nurses are being taught (in some/most instances) not by clinical experts but by college educated degrees that have never stepped foot on a floor, teaching the bedside skills, spouting the laurels of "evidenced practice" when the have little or no evidence because they have never practiced. :bugeyes:

real nurse (rn). they graduate and realize what those of us already in the field already know and that is that "they don't pay me enough to put up with this crap" but first and foremost...we love being a nurse.

i know many will not agree....but it is just my :twocents:

think again...because i agree with you 100%...it's very sad what some of these programs are doing to these future nurses, only time will tell.

I think a lot of people going into nursing thinking they will be nursing patients and caring for people and that it will be all about the patients. When they get to the job and realize it is not about the patients at all, but all about money. Then we realize that to make all this money, they need a packmule workhourse to work to death to turn a profit, and holy Sh&6, they mean to use US to do that.

I am a CNA and I have worked for almost a year as such. I see benefit because you get to watch nurses in action. I also took an acute care CNA class that allowed me hospital clinic time! I learned so much from the RN's in the Emergency room even though all I did was clean beds in between pt's, I did some urine dips, and took specimens to the lab. But beyond that I saw how the RN's acted in emergencies and how much paperwork is involved in being an RN. I am also in training to be a medical assistant. But soon am going into an LVN program. I just think having the different certificates can tell you whether you should bother spending the time and the money for such an extensive and costly program!!

I think my unit is a meat grinder "on purpose." Recently the more skilled, experienced, late-20's/early 30's RNs were stuck there as no other units were hiring. Now that hiring has picked up, these strong RNs are leaving skid marks getting away.

I think at first, management likes it because they can easily find new grads who will jump at the chance to take any job. However, our attrition rate doesn't leave very many good teachers around as we are hiring new grads like crazy.

This is going to be a problem pretty soon. I (and my cohorts) are learning, but not so fast and well that we can replace the experience of a dozen highly skilled nurses.

Sounds like my unit. Some of my preceptors had not been off orientation for even 6months when they were orienting me. Some shifts the person with most nursing experience ( ina ny setting) still has less than 1 year of experience.

What about people leave because the job sucks? there are better jobs out there ? isn't that an option? Is that the big elephant in the room? why do people leave any job? because they found better?

Specializes in ER, ICU, Hyperbarics/Wound Care, Psych.

I am always thankful to my instructor from my first semester in nursing school. She was a Lt. Colonel in the reserves and had many years of civilian and military experience as a nurse. She would always say "first I will teach you how to do this to pass nursing school, then I will teach you how to keep your job and sanity in the real world." I hear this mantra in my head daily as I do my job. The biggest problem in nursing is that we do not charge for our service. We are included in the room charge like the housekeeper, the sheets, the wall suction, etc. So every bean counter out there figures the way to cut costs is increase the nursing work load and decrease the assitance they have to accomplish their work. Radiologists, respiratory therapist, etc. all charge for their service, hence they are money makers for the hospital. Nurses do not charge, so they are expenses, not money makers. The problems in nursing require nurses to have a voice in their career, we have none. The ANA is a farce. The state boards are police forces against nurses and their function is to find scapegoats for any problems, not protect nurses. Please never believe any state board is your friend or in any way on our side, they are there to represent the patient not the nurse. Many experienced nurses are angry about the constant changes and the way non practicing nurses are constantly coming up with new paperwork, or new requrements for us to make us more cleint friendly. (as long as it does not effect the bottom line profit margin for the hospital)

New nurses are trained by nurses that get them as an added work load and so they start out being a burden on the experienced nurse and don't get nurtured, they get to be the sounding board for the anger of the experienced nurse trainging them. The "experienced" nurse training you may be a dolt, whose only redeaming factor is that she has been able to keep her job despite his/her incompetence. They will then pass on their poor attitude and poor work ethic.

So in a nutshell, it is a buyer beware situation. You come into the field expecting to help people and sometimes you actually get that chance. Most of the time, paperwork is more important than patient care, you are poorly trained and get thrown to the dogs far too soon to be ready for the workload. You will be expected to be faultless and to be responsible for everyone working "under your license" most of whom will have no appreciation for that relationship. You will get written up for the mistakes of the CNA, the LPN, etc., because you are the RN and you should have caught those errors. I have been an RN for 20 years and it gets worse every year. I love being a nurse and I hate seeing where we are headed and how we are treated. I hate that we pass on our anger to new nurses, but I know it is inevitable that we do. I believe nurses have to organize, stick toghether and vote as a group for legislation to make changes in our field.

New nurses need qualified preceptors and adequate training, we need satisfactory nurse to patient ratios, quality equipment to do the job, and time to assess our patients. We need time to read the chart and know what we are treating and why. NO ONE IS GOING TO GIVE US THESE THINGS VOLUNTARILY BECAUSE WE ARE EXPENSES, WE DO NOT BRING MONEY INTO THE HOSPITAL. NURSES NEED TO UNITE, CHANGE THIS TREND, FIGHT FOR WHAT WE SHOULD BE AND QUIT ACCEPTING WHAT THEY PUT ON YOUR PLATE. This message will fall on many deaf ears, everyone wants things to be better, nobody wants to fight to get it that way. When nurses went on strikes to improve things, other sleazy nurse crossed their picket lines for a few extra bucks and helped the bean counters maintain the status quo. They all justified what they did by saying they were concerned about patient care, well they can pucker up and kiss my gluteus maximus, they did it for greed. Every day we accept the current conditions it will get worse. Unite and stand up for recognition and quality in nursing while we can.

Specializes in ER preceptorship, almost a year on PCU..

To Calder, as KelRN216 said, working as a CNA will help you learn prioritization and time management skills, which are crucial to success as an RN. I worked as a tech while I was in nursing school and it was so helpful! I had exposure to the hospital setting and routine, learned how to handle difficult or disoriented patients, and was able to learn a lot of things from the nurses I worked with.

I recently got out of nursing, after working as an RN for 2.5 years. I injured my back less than 6 months into it and pushed through the pain until I could hardly lift my arms at the end of the shift and was seeing a chiropractor once or twice a week. I miss patient care, but I don't regret my decision to become a nurse - or to leave it. I won't miss the pain, the constant stress (even on my days off), the hospital politics, having to spend more time with the charts than the patients, and 12 hours on my feet with no food, water, or breaks.

Specializes in ICU, PACU, OR.

I heard today that the real economic indicator in growth is job turn, meaning those at retirement age actually retire from their present position and let the new come in and claim those jobs left vacant. That is not happening at the rate as it had in the past. Because of that it's harder and harder for new grads to land jobs. When the economy is improved and those at retirement age can actually afford to retire, then things will loosen up a bit. No one can predict when that will happen, but hang in there. Your time will come. This is not just in nursing it is in many industries. Know this may not make you feel better, but you will get what you want in time.

Specializes in Adult/Ped Emergency and Trauma.

THERE ARE STILL GOOD PLACES TO WORK I SWEAR.

THERE IS STILL MUCH GREATNESS IN BEING A NURSE.

WE NEED A VARIETY OF IDEAs OPINIONs and ATTITUDES, IT WILL KEEP US WELL ROUNDED.

THERE ARE STILL PEOPLE WHO ADMIRE, AND ARE INSPIRED BY NURSES.

THEY STILL CAN'T TRAIN A MONKEY OR ROBOT TO DO WHAT WE DO.

THE SAD TRUTH IS THAT IF YOU DON'T TAKE GOOD CARE OF THE CAR YOU ARE DRIVING, SERVICE IT, BUY GOOD GAS, KEEP IT TUNED UP, DON'T REDLINE IT ALL THE TIME, DON'T ALWAYS KEEP IT EXPOSED TO THE ELEMENTS,. . .IT WILL DIE, AND YOU WILL LOSE IT AS THE CAR IT ONCE WAS,. . . NO MATTER IF IT IS A BMW, JAG, AUDI, CADILLAC, ETC.

YOU ARE THE SAME!!!!!!!!! LEARN STRESS MANAGEMENT, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, DO THINGS YOU LOVE, IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING DEPRESSION/ANXIETY-GET HELP!!!! YOU CANNOT EXPECT TO NOT BURN OUT IF YOU ARE ALWAYS SERVING OTHERS 1000 PERCENT, AND NOT TAKING TIME TO TREAT YOURSELF, YOU ARE WORTH IT, YOU NEED IT, OR YOU WILL BURN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEVER FORGET WHY YOU FILLED OUT THAT APPLICATION TO NURSING SCHOOL IN THE FIRST PLACE.:redbeathe

BE YOUR OWN FRIEND, ADVOCATE, AND CAREGIVER,. . .AND IT WILL PRODUCE GREATNESS IN THE CARE YOU GIVE!!!!!:hug:TELL SOMEONE WHEN YOU ARE BURNING OUT, JUST SPEAKING IT BEGINS THE HEALING PROCESS.

DISCLAIMER: HOWEVER, IF YOU ARE IN YOUR FIRST YEAR, YOUR FRUSTRATED, NOT BURNING OUT.:nono:

I have a completely different question, however, it piggybacks off your question...

I have four nurses (who already have an associates degree but working to get their BSN) in my 2nd degree BSN pre-req classes and I am not quite sure if it is by random chance or not but they are very difficult to work with, spend the whole class complaining about their upcoming schedule or why they are too smart to be in the class.... ? In general, do most major hospitals help their nursing staff develop team skills? I understand you need tough skin because you have to deal with rough situations but i would assume its best to build confidence in yourself first. (Seems to work best in the other industries). These observations coupled with my experience while shadowing a friend who just got her 2nd degree BSN and got a job in the ER being constantly in the dark or having eyes roll at her make me wonder if it would be better to become a PA or stick with consulting in the public health arena since the culture is a bit more supportive, less drama.

Does anyone think the morale is high amount the nursing staff and also if the upper mgmt is receptive to change? I am just curious.

I also am curious to see if any other BSNs out there have experienced these situations where you are mocked, talked down to, or felt as though your questions just annoy people - especially anyone that came from the business world beforehand? Are there mentoring/leadership programs at hospitals that help grow the new nurses?

Lastly, I wanted to get everyone's opinions about the amount of tension between the other types of beginning and mid-level health care providers? From looking at the message boards it seems like neither type of mid-level provider (nurse practitioner or PA) thinks the other is competent. I am curious if maybe I have been around the wrong people shadowing at the wrong time or if this all is the realty of life that comes with the job?

That sounds horrible, I am not nurse but am considering becoming one, a PA, or a dentist. I am lucky to have time to decide! Just from looking at these boards it seems like there is a lack of leadership developed and the leadership is silo'ed so you have each group thinking they are important.... I hope if you are a really good, well-educated nurse who goes above and beyond then you will get respect.....

Specializes in Med-Surg - Neuro Science - Cardiac.

I was an older grad so I didn't have any unreasonable expectations as to what I was getting myself into when went into nursing. I have since seen alot of new younger grads who went straight into nursing from high school burn out quick. They complain about this not being what they signed on for & the work load is too much. I agree that I have seen more & more responsibilities placed on the RN's. I have spoken up at times when there certain tasks are handed to me, these things are busy work that take time from my patients. Many of these things are Press Ganey related and although I understand it is a business, I also realize that if you want those ratings you need allow me to spend time with the patient & family. We police everyone from the CNA to the doctor but we are the line of defense for the patient. I personally think that new grads don't fully understand that nursing is not cute scrubs, hanging out with cute doctors, and taking home a decent paycheck. If you put in perspective, the amount of time, work and responsibilities they do not equal the pay. I think this pays a hugh part in the new grad turn over. They have unrealistic expections and when reality hits, they bail.

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