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Tips from TSE: Retain the wisdom of your older educators

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, July 31, 2008

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With offerings of tuition reimbursement, super-size sign-on bonuses, and much more, the focus on clinical recruitment and retention has largely been on bringing in new graduate nurses by the boatloads. But with an aging workforce and the knowledge of older staff educators threatening to be left in the dust of retirement, facilities will benefit by taking steps to help these experienced nurses remain productive members of the healthcare training field.

"Think about the expertise that's in those older nurses," says Dennis Sherrod, EdD, RN, Forsyth Medical Center endowed chair of recruitment and retention at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC. "If we can put in some strategies to assist those older nurses to continue to work another five to seven years, it could really go long ways."

The biggest thing to remember is that a combined-step process aimed at retention is the key to success. The following are steps that can be combined as a full-on educator retention plan that can keep your aging educators healthy, comfortable, and thriving as a member of the workforce.

• Give them a manageable workload. And within that workload, make sure that physical exertion, such as lifting, is limited or eliminated. "Have them avoid repetitive motions so they do not cause injuries," says Sherrod.
• Make work stations and classrooms more conducive to teaching. This can be done by providing adequate lighting, ensuring that text on computer screens is large, and making certain that overheads have clear font for easy reading and reviewing. "Bump up the font to 150%," suggests Sherrod.
• Propose "phase retirement" for educators. "In the hospital setting, at least half of nurses considering retirement don't plan to work full-time and just stop," Sherrod says. "Offer other options, such as working a day a week for insurance benefits or working one week and taking the next one off."

Editor's note: This excerpt was taken from the August issue of The Staff Educator. Discover all the benefits of subscribing to The Staff Educator!

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