Evidence-Based Practice Guideline: Nurse Retention for Nurse Managers

Posted: February 15th, 2023

Evidence-Based Practice Guideline: Nurse Retention for Nurse Managers

Nurse retention is a crucial issue for health care organizations, as it affects the quality of care, patient safety, staff satisfaction, and organizational costs. Nurse managers play a vital role in promoting job satisfaction and reducing turnover among staff nurses. This evidence-based practice guideline provides some strategies for nurse managers to use in enhancing nurse retention in various health care settings.

The guideline is based on a review of the current literature on nurse retention, as well as the recommendations of experts and professional organizations. The guideline covers the following topics:

– Recruitment and hiring practices
– Orientation and mentoring programs
– Recognition and reward systems
– Professional development and career advancement opportunities
– Work environment and culture
– Leadership and communication skills
– Employee engagement and empowerment
– Work-life balance and wellness initiatives

For each topic, the guideline provides a brief overview, a rationale, some evidence-based strategies, and some examples of best practices. The guideline also includes a list of references and resources for further reading.

The goal of this guideline is to help nurse managers retain experienced nurses beyond compensation issues, by addressing their intrinsic and extrinsic needs and expectations. The guideline is intended to be flexible and adaptable to different contexts and situations, as well as to the preferences and values of the nurse managers and staff nurses. The guideline is not meant to be prescriptive or exhaustive, but rather to provide some general guidance and suggestions based on the best available evidence.

The guideline is organized as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Recruitment and hiring practices
3. Orientation and mentoring programs
4. Recognition and reward systems
5. Professional development and career advancement opportunities
6. Work environment and culture
7. Leadership and communication skills
8. Employee engagement and empowerment
9. Work-life balance and wellness initiatives
10. Conclusion
11. References and resources

Introduction

Nurse retention is defined as the ability of an organization to retain its nursing staff over time (McCloskey & McCain, 1987). Nurse retention is influenced by various factors, such as individual characteristics, organizational factors, environmental factors, and external factors (Boamah et al., 2017). Nurse retention is important for several reasons, such as:

– Improving the quality of care and patient outcomes. Research has shown that higher nurse retention is associated with lower rates of adverse events, infections, mortality, readmissions, and patient complaints (Aiken et al., 2017; Buerhaus et al., 2015; Needleman et al., 2011).
– Enhancing staff satisfaction and morale. Research has shown that higher nurse retention is associated with higher levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, professional autonomy, teamwork, collaboration, trust, respect, recognition, and empowerment among nurses (Boamah et al., 2017; Brunges & Foley-Brinza, 2014; Spence Laschinger & Fida, 2015).
– Reducing organizational costs and revenues. Research has shown that higher nurse retention is associated with lower costs related to recruitment, orientation, training, overtime, agency fees, vacancy rates, absenteeism, turnover intention, and turnover (Kovner et al., 2014; NSI Nursing Solutions,