Nurse Recruitment and Nurse Retention

Why Do 18% of New Nurses Quit Their First Jobs?

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:59:02 +0000

I just learned about the RN Work Project (www.RNWorkProject.org) This project will track career changes among newly licensed registered nurses.

With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation until 2016, they will study RN work careers for 10 years.

Understanding the needs and challenges of new RNs is crucial understanding the supply of and demand for nurses. This study examines the first work settings of newly licensed registered nurses to learn what influences their first job choice and where they move to afterward.

About 18 % of newly licensed RNs leave their first nursing employer within a year of starting their job and 26% leave within 2 years. Of these about 92% take another nursing job with a different employer.

This study is crucial for nurse recruitment and retention. To learn more ideas, contact me.

Male Nurses Finally Get Support and Attention

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:35:56 +0000

I just learned about the American Academy of Men in Nursing. The purpose of AAMN is to provide a framework for male nurses as a group to meet, discuss, and influence factors that affect men as nurses.

Membership is open to any nurse – male or female.

One of their main objectives is to encourage men of all ages to become nurses and join together with all nurses in strengthening and humanizing health care.

Check out the AAMN conference coming uphttp://aamn.org/conference.html.

It is time for all nurses to support men who are nurses and to applaud the increasing contributions made by men in the nursing profession.

This is a great nurse recruitment need. To learn how I can help with nurse recruitment and retention, contact me.

Is the Market Tight for New RNs?

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:47:21 +0000

USA Today reported last week that many newly graduated RNs are having trouble finding jobs. A June 2009 survey found that 44% hadn’t secured a nursing job.

Now many may need to be flexible about location and shifts. Graduates are getting jobs, just not always in their preferred areas.

Many new RNs aren’t finding work in their “ideal” hospital environments, but are working in nursing homes, home health care and other settings. This is a great time for these places to recruit the nurses they need.

Nursing is a calling. They will have great experiences in the other areas and, if they are like I was as a new nurse, they will be pleasantly surprised that they love the caring where ever they are!

To learn more about recruiting nurses, contact me.

Nurses Overworked and Burning Out

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:15:39 +0000

A hospital in Kansas who I have worked with reported that they currently have no openings are are not recruiting nurses. Instead their nurses were working 12 hour shifts to cover. But instead of three days a week, many were picking up a forth for more money. The result? Their nurses are burning out. Surprised?

Every nurse will admit that increased work leads to increased errors and decreased patient care and satisfaction scores.

This is a poor solution. Hospitals need to recruit nurses and retain nurses…for everyone’s sake.

I can tell you how. Contact me.

“Older” Nurses More Engaged in Tough Economic Times

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:02:30 +0000

Some hospitals aren’t hiring many nurse right now, and their staff is often on overload. Nurses of all ages are reporting decreased engagement, “a measure of how invested and enthusiastic employees are in their work.”

Gen Y report the biggest decrease in engagement, followed closely by the Gen Xers.Interestingly, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists hardly changed at all.

Drawing on life-lessons through past economic ups and downs, they show they are more resilient in threatening economic times.

To learn about the four generations in your workplace, contact me for my new keynote, What’s This Generation Coming To? It’s a great way to increase nurse retention.

How to Retain Nurses; Create a Culture of Caring

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:49:17 +0000

I spoke at the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management)conference last week. My sessions was titled Balancing Life in Your “War Zones”: How to Increase Employee Engagement and Productivity.

I offered simple tools for work-life balance, believing that when organizations create a culture of caring, their retention rates drastically improve. Everyone there agreed, that is just what they needed to stay.

To learn how to recruit and retain your nurses, contact me.

Are More Nurses Quitting?

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:36:10 +0000

There is a shift happening in today’s workplaces. Now that more people are able to find jobs, others are confident enough to quit them, even without firm offers.

The USA has had more people quit their jobs in the past three months than those who lost their jobs. The Herman Trend Alert reports that one-quarter of promising employees are increasingly disengaged and many are actively seeking new jobs.

25% of “employer-identified, high potential employees” plan to leave their current jobs within the next year.

To learn how to retain your best nurses, contact me.

Enage Nurses; Increase Nurse Retention and HCAHPS Scores

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 21:35:31 +0000

How do hospitals cope in financially constricted times? Old remedies of staff reductions and budget cuts are only short-term solutions that may lead to poorer patient outcomes and quality of care. New research has found that they key to long-term success is to create and maintain emotional connections with employees who are working harder with less.

Strong relationships are crucial to retention. Emotionally engaged employees are nearly twice as likely to stay and increase HCAHPS scores. (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems).

My self-care for healthcare tools are a great way to show your staff that you care; a great way to recruit and retain nurses. Contact me.

Save Our New Nurses

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:06:44 +0000

When one considers that 1 in 5 first year nurses quit, it speaks to the need for every new nurse to have a mentor. As a part of the interview process, have the proposed new hire shadow one of your best nurses for a day…perhaps one that would be her mentor for a full year. And mentors must be compensated. Some hospitals give bonuses, and others give $1 and hour pay raise. Now that will help with nurse retention!

For more ideas on how to retain your nurses, contact me.

Yes, Virginia, There is Still a Nursing Shortage

LeAnn Thieman, CSP — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:05:20 +0000

At a time when good jobs with benefits are harder to find, South Florida’s nursing shortage continues. A new study by the Florida Center for Nursing finds the shortage is coming down to one word: Churn. Rapid turnover is the driving force behind the shortage.

For every five registered nurses Florida added in the last two years, it lost three of them, either to another state or to another profession entirely.

It’s a problem Florida cannot afford to ignore. Nursing shortages are associated with poorer patient outcomes: more pressure sores, more clinically acquired infections such as pneumonia, longer stays and higher costs.

Recruiting and training a new registered nurse can cost as much as a year’s salary. So solving the retention problem is an urgent issue.

To learn strategies to retain your best nurses, contact me.