Nurse Retention Articles

Building a staff of nursing professionals takes time, energy, and resources, especially if you’re looking to fill your positions with the best candidates. But putting your team in place is just the start. All the effort you spent recruiting the best candidates will be lost if you don’t have a plan in place for nurse retention.

Your plan should start with understanding the causes of nurse turnover, both in the industry at large and specifically at your facility. Is scheduling the issue? Or perhaps there are interpersonal conflicts getting in the way of a thriving workforce? Whatever the reasons may be, a good talent retention strategy must keep the pain points in mind.

But there’s more to nursing retention than just removing obstacles. The other important piece is laying out a path forward for your nursing professionals. Having a good understanding of your team’s professional, and even personal, goals will help you to offer a better career path for them at your facility. This section has resources to help you build greater incentives for nurse retention and to develop a team that will deliver for you on every shift.

Developing a Retention Plan

As you use these resources to develop your retention strategy, it’s important to keep your priorities and end state in mind. Do you prioritize stability or flexibility when it comes to scheduling shifts? Do you need seasoned staff who are already well-trained or do you prefer less experienced candidates who you can train in-house based on the specific needs of your facility?

As you work back from your end goals, the resources in this section will help you keep other important factors in mind, such as how to develop:

• Engaging professional development programs
• A culture of nurse wellness to ensure active and engaged staff on every shift
• Plans for workplace safety and staff protection
• Ways to measure staff satisfaction and identify turnover issues as early as possible

When you get it right, the benefits of nurse retention will be felt in every aspect of your facility’s operations. From continuity of relationships amongst staff and residents to better care outcomes, and improvements in recruiting efforts, you’ll see that the investment in your staff will pay dividends down the road.

Ready to Put Your Nurse Retention Plan in Place?

Whether you’re dealing with turnover issues right now or just want to head them off down the road, now is always the right time to focus on retention. Use these resources to develop a more comprehensive strategy today.