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Workplace ethical climate linked to nurse retention

Case Management Weekly, September 14, 2005

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A new study published in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Nursing Scholarship found that the ethical climate of the workplace plays a significant role in nurse retention.

The study, conducted by Sara E. Hart, Ph.D., RN, a research assistant professor and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kansas School of Nursing in Kansas City, Kansas, surveyed 463 randomly selected acute care RNs in Missouri in 2003 and 2004. Defining ethical climate as "organizational conditions and practices that affect the way difficult patient care problems, with ethical implications, are discussed and decided," the survey asked nurses to answer questions about ethical issues that arose between four segments of the workplace: nurses and nurses; nurses and patients; nurses and physicians; and nurses and managers.

Hart's study revealed that ethical climate accounted for 25.4% of the variance in nurses' intent to leave a current position and 14.7% of the variance in their intent to leave the profession.

Hart explained that the survey results suggest real implications for healthcare organizations, as well as real ways to improve the ethical climate and, in turn, improve retention.

"The things that come to the forefront of my mind are providing more control over practice and not having a hierarchical work environment - instead having a team approach to patient care where everyone is considered equal," she said. "People need to feel free to express their concerns about patient care in an environment that's open to responding to these concerns."

Source: nursezone.com

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