Vol XIV: Ch 6 Healthcare Leaders’ Strategies to Improve Nurse Retention

From the Book: The Refractive Thinker® Vol XIV: Health Care: The Impact on Leadership, Business, and Education.

Summary

Registered nurse (RN) retention and turnover is a recurring problem for some health care organizations. RN retention strategies focus on preventing skilled RNs from leaving the workplace. Health care leaders must understand what factors influence RN turnover for development of successful strategies to improve RN retention. Most health care organization experience both voluntary and involuntary turnover, which will often have a negative effect on the organization. Turnover of RNs is disruptive and costly for hospitals. As such, improving RN retention is an organizational priority that is essential for sustainability and longevity of the institution. The goal of this chapter was to identify some of the causes of RN turnover and to outline specific RN strategies that current health care leaders are using to improve RN retention in their organization. Stemming the flow of RN turnover and improving RN retention requires supportive leadership, fostering teamwork, and effective communication from health care leaders.