Nursing Leaders and Job Retention Term Paper

Nurse Retention Capacity

Standards & Analysis on Nurse Retention

The demand for nursing staff in the United States has significantly increased and according to the Center for American Nurses, employment in these positions have increased to an amazing 83% which is now at the highest it has been since 1980, and considering that this role is the biggest job in healthcare offering over 2.6 million jobs, the problem in hospitals, healthcare facilities, and in home care is the lack of nurses (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). Furthermore, there are many reasons as to why experts and the healthcare facilities are unable to hire enough people to fulfill the positions within their establishments, and most research has determined that the main reasons there is such a shortage in nursing jobs is because of the poor management and leadership within the nursing work environment, the increased amount of responsibility and work load that have been put on nursing staff, and because of the positions that a lot of nurses are in are causing individuals to get frustrated and stressed out because of other employees and their unnecessary actions and attitudes towards certain nurses so they look for other jobs offered in another location. Matter-of-fact, Peter Buehaus and Valere Potter, who are two professors that belong to the Nursing and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center located in Nashville, Tennessee estimated that by the next decade the hole connecting demand and supply will develop to an estimated 260,000 registered nurses which is almost three times than any scarcity incident in the country in the past half century (Chart Your Course International, 2011).

Currently, hospitals and other healthcare institutions are looking at the causes for nursing shortages in their areas so they can do something about it because it is already way out of control in a lot of populated areas and many patients lives depend on the care they never receive, regrettably. Unfortunately, with no end to this problem in sight, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, CEO, Pamela Thompson, feels that many establishments should be carrying out surveys on a regular basis to help determine the reasons behind the nurses who do leave their environments (Runy, 2006). Lee Ann Runy and other professionals in these positions felt that leadership and having a committed administration is key in keeping nurses at their current positions, and some institutions like the North Arundel Hospital's president and CEO make a point of getting acquainted with the nurses that are aboard their facility by spending time with them, talking about their concerns and other issues in their departments, and what should be done in order to meet the expectations of their employees (2006). In other words, hospitals must provide a work environment that the nurses do want to work in order to keep their staff happy, and by offering leadership and a responsible management it can implement programs and goals to do so.

Right now the morality rates for patients that are hospitalized have significantly increased, especially in the past 10 years, and the turnover in these RN and LPN positions are one of the main contributors to the cause, and the shortage is also connected to the decrease in production, meager values in care, heavier workloads for the nurses that remain, decline in confidence, augmented distress for occupational well-being, and supplementary turnover, as well (Tourangeau, Cummings, Cranley, Ferron, & Harvey, 2009). Therefore the added responsibility on the nurses that continue to work in environments where the number of staff is limited do have more stress and control over their own positions within that particular facility or department. In reality, most nurses want to have the opportunity to have the power in their positions to take on more responsibility because they feel confident and appreciated by the doctors and administration. However, the downside is the men and women can become burned out in these positions and ready to take a leave of absence and even dread the long hours at their jobs. In fact many new recruits of RN that are fresh out of college of almost 65% has been recorded to leave their first job within the first year of nursing, and there are a variety of strategies that are being developed to prevent these turnovers. The journal's authors recognize these strategies to be simple to complex that include increasing the number of educational capacity within some of the hospitals as well as encouraging and incentives to keep nursing staff from retiring or moving on to other positions (2009).

Nurses in a stressful work environment with unfair treatment has also been determined as a reason that nurses will leave their jobs because a person can only take so much from the staff and administration in any work environment. Nursing jobs can have just as much violence and bullying going on as the next job out there, and the psychological and physical affects that it can do to these nurses who suffer from this type of mistreatment usually give up because of the fear that they will just be looked down on by their superiors if they say anything about the way they are being treated. No one wants to have to deal with these issues, and they can get serious in this type of work environment, and who would ever believe that a nurse was being battered over other doctors and nurses denying the accusations. Younger nurses feel that they have a hopeless case, so they will either continue to earn their way up the ladder or quit instead of facing the problem and putting a stop to it. The violence in the nursing in violence is a common issues that many facilities are currently trying to decipher how to get a hold on these problems, and they ask what should be done first and foremost to let all personnel know that the hostility stops today and there are consequences or possible termination if there is a continued or reoccurring problem. In more recent years there have been diverse developments in the direction of comprehensive specialized orientation programs designed specifically for new graduate RNs. Many hospitals are establishing new policies that educate nurses and established personnel at facilities of guiding principle and their zero tolerance for complaints they receive.

In encouraging staff preservation associations need to broaden the atmosphere in which nurses' desire, that are safe and sound, and support worthy healthcare, and it should be the responsibility of nursing management and nurse director to create settings that maintain proficient performance. Furthermore, the nurses should play active roles in the process of creating positive and healthy working conditions starting at the time of recruitment; however, setting these standards is not easy because it takes time to collect the data required to determine individual healthcare facility needs (Runy, 2006). Surveys should be carried out in every facility that request partialities about rules and performances that influence the opinions of the nursing staff in each medical wing within each institution. The purpose of the assessment is to decide on which guidelines illustrate the greatest possibilities in their surroundings, what type of changes in their settings are most likely to keep as well as discourage older nurses that are employed, as well as asking questions to determine how each nurses feels about their management and direct supervisors and if there is leadership provided by the nurses and doctors that are in charge. Furthermore, the survey will ask questions that to see if there is any possible hostile working conditions, how they felt about co-workers, were they considering leaving the job, their age, how long they have been employed in that position, what licenses they hold, and other information to determine if there is effect leadership in nursing jobs.

In order to develop effective leadership, the institutions should have a high set of standards that all employees must abide by increasing the proficiency-based professional hierarchy by first steering clear of permitting nurses to go in to management positions who are not prepared with the essential proficiency for this job noted Monaghan in 2009. Within, his analysis of his piece on Effective Leadership + Nurse Retention the method of progression preparation is to facilitate impending persons in charge to obtain an appreciation of the talents that will be necessary for the jobs they seek, as a result, recognizing precise aptitudes, that are similar to handling differences and organizing alterations required to acquire their position together with any irrefutable abilities necessary. The next principle that should take place is to offer proper and unofficial leadership education since numerous hospitals have condensed their workers schooling finances as a way to cut back and save money. Considering that cost to recruit one nurse is $50,000+, it is evident that the expenses of less than $5,000 for on hand and prospective bosses are absolutely the better decision. Not only can this avert the failure of a number of awfully fine medical tending employees owed to meager…