Nurse Retention Initiative
In a recent article by Becker’s Hospital Review, 6 nursing leaders were interviewed as to what initiatives their hospitals are making to improve patient care and work culture. According to Margarita Baggett, MSN, RN, Chief Clinical Officer for UC San Diego Health, “the aim is to outperform the previous years when it comes to Nurse sensitive indicators.” These indicators include such things as prevention of falls, pressure injuries and certain infections.
Frankly, I do not see how our nurse sensitive indicators will improve nurse satisfaction and thus increase retention.
The second person was Dina Dent, DNP, RN, Vice President, and Chief Nursing Officer at Inova Health Systems. She discusses shared governance structure to ensure that every nurse’s voice is heard.
Just having a nurse at a table does not mean that the nurse’s voice is heard. Her other initiative is to decrease nurse turnover rate, but she does not say how. She wants to have nurses practice to the full extent to their license and empower them to be autonomous or empower them with autonomy and resources.
They have a clinical ladder which now includes a level 5. Again, I’m not sure how any of these initiatives are going to help decrease nurse turnover and solve the issues in healthcare.
Brandee Featherman, MSN, RN, and Chief Nursing Officer at Morristown Medical Center believes that the key component to enhancing patient care is to provide support and encouragement for our nursing professionals to reach higher competencies with ongoing professional and career development. To restate, I am not sure how educating nurses is going to improve patient care and nurse satisfaction, thus improving retention.
Ryannon Frederick, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, wants to practice transformation to decrease the documentation time and incorporate automation and artificial intelligence, improving communication and introducing new care delivery models such as virtual care. Nice words, but I can’t say that this is going to solve the problem.
Joye Gingrich, BSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer, and Vice President of Patient Care Services at UPMC Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, wants to transition Graduate Services Nurses into professional practice with a clinical ladder offering more opportunities, accelerated growth, greater compensation, and flexible scheduling.
While I think some of these initiatives may help, it is so interesting that not one of these Nurse Leaders talked about improving staffing ratios.
The last expert to weigh in is Marybeth Thoburn, BSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer of Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital. She wants to attend to the emotional needs of caregivers and to implement Code Lavender to support a team that has endured a particularly stressful patient or caregiver event.
While I think it is important to help nurses grieve over difficult situations, the bigger picture, which no one seems to address, is how nurses are being asked to do more with less resources.
I don’t care the education you provide a nurse because if they don’t have time to take it, it doesn’t do any good. It will be interesting to see what happens because of these forward-thinking Nurse Leaders.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Please answer in the comments below.
