Summary: Improving Nurse Turnover

Dawson, Roche, Homer, and Duffield (2014), presented a qualitative design to reveal nurses’ experiences and perceptions of turnover in Australian hospitals and to identify strategies that will improve nurse retention, performance and job satisfaction. They analyzed 362 nurses from a national survey of nurses from medical-surgical units across 3 Australian states. The results found that key factors affecting nurse turnover were limited career opportunities, poor support, a lack of recognition and negative staff attitudes. These issues caused nurses to feel undervalued and disempowered. At the conclusion of this survey, it was shown that nursing turnover can be influenced by the experiences of nurses and positive steps need to be made to improve workplace conditions and nurse retention. Several studies were performed and it was found that participants highlighted the need for a quality preceptorship program for new nurses. Improving job performance and workplace conditions can reduce high turnover rates.

New nurses experience the feelings of uncertainty as well as feeling resistance from senior nurses. Senior nurses have been known to exhibit behavior such as bullying, belittling or just simple negative behavior; all of these things can be perceived as a threat and will pose fear causing the new nurse to abort their position. These authors looked at a mentorship program that was started at the children’s hospital in Boston, MA. Mentors were asked to volunteer and were given extensive training on lateral violence, effective communication, and professionalism. The new nurses were able to choose from a list of individuals and both parties signed a contract of objectives and goals to be accomplished within a specific timeframe. After one year, each party had a positive response and the hospital has been able to retain their new