What is Causing the Trend of Nursing Turnover and How to Stop It

It is not a shock to many that nurses are feeling undervalued, overworked, and underpaid. Nursing burnout and turnover existed way before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now the terminology is used in many story headlines. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise to know that the nursing turnover rate in 2021 is at an all-time high of 18.7 %.

What is causing the increased rate of turnover in the U.S., and will it continue?

Causes and Outcomes of Nursing Turnover

Nurse turnover can happen for many different reasons, including retirement, wanting a change in profession, or nursing burnout.

It takes the average hospital three months to recruit an experienced nurse who has previously left their position, leaving the hospital with increased vacancy costs and higher staffing ratios leading to poor patient care and poor patient outcomes.

The average hospital spends approximately $60,000 to replace an RN. Facilities are spending millions of dollars on employee recruitment, training, and rehiring.

The mass exodus of nurses leaving their positions is continuing to contribute to the ever-growing nursing shortage.

The higher the nurse turnover rate is, the more stressed, overworked, and exhausted the remaining nurses in the hospital are, leading them to leave, creating a snowball effect.

If a patient is not receiving high–quality care due to factors such as nursing burnout and mental exhaustion, positive patient outcomes surely decrease.

What Can Be Done?

Nursing burnout and poor job satisfaction are issues that over 60% of nurses in the U.S. are facing. In order to decrease the mass turnover of nurses, nursing burnout must be addressed.

To learn more about the crisis of burnout, visit Nursing CE Central’s “Nurse Burnout Study.”

Nurses Need Recognition

Nursing managers and healthcare administrators should respect and recognize their hardworking, dedicated, and loyal nursing staff for all they do for their patients and for the nursing profession.

I am not talking about a pizza party or a coupon for a free soda to the hospital cafeteria, I am talking about specific recognition.

Nurses do not join the industry for the recognition or “job well done,” but it is nice to hear occasionally, and their tireless work should be appreciated.

When nurses are recognized, they are willing to work harder for less pay. If they feel as if they are invisible, they tend to lose motivation for their work.

Motivators are a proven way of keeping nurses engaged and working hard.

Retention Bonus

Nursing retention bonuses are a great initiative to improve burnout and increase turnover. Pay wage, specifically a lower pay wage, is commonly associated with job dissatisfaction and can lead to turnover.

The reputable financial advising and education provider, Investopedia, defines a retention bonus for nurses as “a targeted payment or reward outside of an employee’s regular salary that is offered as an incentive to keep a key employee on the job during a particularly crucial business cycle.”

Retention bonuses are a way for the institution to show their appreciation to those who have dedicated years of service and care to the promotion of health and care to their patients.

Organizational Interventions

Implementing organizational practices to help alleviate some of the stress and factors contributing to nursing burnout could help in the effort to reduce turnover.

Institutions could introduce flexible scheduling and take into consideration “extracurriculars” they require of their nurses outside of their usual three 12-hour shifts, such as the scheduling of required staff meetings, the number of web-based training, and attendance of quarterly hospital review meetings.

Conflict resolution between nursing staff, physicians, managers, and other interdisciplinary team members should be addressed as well. No one wants to work in a toxic environment.

Tying it all together

Of course, the above are just suggestions of individual and organizational interventions that hospital administrators can take to help address the issue of nursing turnover.

Everyone wants to feel appreciated in their job and in their life.

We should strive to create positive, stress-free work environments for our nurses. After all, they are the ones caring for our friends, loved ones, and others.

We must band together to determine additional solutions to be dedicated to the cause of decreasing nursing turnover and nursing burnout, and it continues to cripple the healthcare environment and the nursing shortage- negatively impacting the delivery of quality patient care.

Let’s make a change.