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What to know about New Nurses: Tackling Turnover

Nurse Leader Insider, February 4, 2016

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Hiring a competent nurse staff is only half the battle. The other half is keeping them. A new study published in Nursing Ethics found the turnover rates for RNs is 16.5%, with each resignation costing a hospital between $44,380 to $63,400 a nurse. Furthermore, newly licensed nurses scored lower on job satisfaction and were more likely to leave their job within two years.

The Nursing Ethics report found that intergenerational conflict was a big part of nurse dissatisfaction; with millennials, Gen Xers, and baby boomers butting heads at the hospital.

"Younger generation nurses feel like they don't have power over their practice, they're not in charge, and that is logical because they are novice practitioners,” study author Charleen McNeill said in a press release. “However, they bring a knowledge of technology that seasoned nurses may lack. In turn, more experienced nurses support the clinical learning and professional role formation of new nurses. Successful nurse-leaders find ways to garner the strengths of each generation of nurses to achieve the best patient outcomes."

McNeill said instead of looking at it as conflict, nurse-leaders need to leverage the strengths of each generation and determine strategies to empower all generations of nurses. Their research suggested a strong correlation between professional values and career development. They also found that both job satisfaction and career development correlated positively with nurse retention.

"The work culture that leaders create – the environment that nurses are working in – is the most important thing related to retention," McNeill said. "It's very expensive to hire new nurses. When we have good nurses, we want to keep them so we need to understand what's important to keep them."

For more tips on retention, conflict resolution and recruitment, check out the following articles from our Strategies for Nurse Managers site!

• 10 cost-effective ways to boost staff morale
• The changing face of recruitment and retention
• The right culture change can improve staff retention
• Book: Managing the Intergenerational Nursing Team

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