A Research Study on Nursing Turnover



A Research Study on Nursing Turnover and Factors That Contribute to the Decline in Nurses Fatimah S. AlliUniversity of Central FloridaAuthors NoteThis research paper was written for English Composition 1102-0014, instructed by Steffen Guenzel. AbstractNursing turnover is and has been a huge problem in the nursing career. This research paper discusses the different factors that contribute to the growing issue of the decline in nurses across the nation. Many questions are answered using many different sources such as: What causes nurses to suddenly leave their jobs? What is the environment like for working nurses and how do nurses deal with their coworkers? Can there be financial struggles in the nursing career and how do they contribute to turnover? How badly does turnover affect other organizations? This research paper is directed towards nursing majors, working nurses, and people who are just interested in the nursing field.Keywords: Nursing Turnover, decline in nurses, retention, nurses and healthcare, relationships between nurses, factors of turnoverIt’s Hard to be a NurseUpon extensive research, it has become quite evident that the declining number of nurses, termed nursing turnover, is a huge issue plaguing the medical field and healthcare organizations around the country and can be caused by a number of different factors. These healthcare organizations require a strong and efficient nursing staff. Without a dependable staff, the profits will decrease rapidly causing financial burdens. Medical facilities require a steady and strong staff of nurses and other medical personnel for the sake of familiarity for the benefit of the patients. In addition, many resources go into training new nurses and it is often detrimental in terms of money and time. The time and money that goes into training new nurses would ideally be used in the best interest of the patient. Essentially, increasing nursing turnover decreases the quality of how the patient is taken care of, the polar opposite of what the goal and duty of a nurse should be. Nursing turnover can be caused by a number of things. Nurses can be affected by other nurses and doctors in the working environment, be overwhelmed by the huge and stressful workload, and be affected by the unfair pay that they receive and the lack of organization in the screening process. Nursing turnover is capable of causing many underlying problems. There is a huge cost to the decline of nurses. With a huge shortage in nurses, healthcare organizations are not able to function in a way that is beneficial to the patients. Patients will not be taken care of in the way they should be. Also, with the nursing shortage, there may be moments where patients will practically be turned away no matter what illness they have. Nurses are also more likely to make more mistakes due to the fact that it is more stressful to be working under such a short number.When it comes to officially choosing a career, it is important to have an efficient system that picks out the people who are capable of making it worthwhile. Without an organized system or screening system, managers will pick those who don’t care about the patients and who aren’t trained enough. Managers should be provided with the correct tools in order to clearly see people who are willing to be hardworking and effective. In nursing, this is extremely important due to the fact that nurses deal with patients that need to be taken care of. Which patient would like to be cared by a nurse who isn’t highly trained and happy to be a nurse? Some people don’t realize the amount of work that has to be done by a nurse and takes the job for granted. Of course, hospitals should not have these people in their settings. Those who apply to be nurses should be interviewed and looked at with a magnifying glass. Their different qualities and experience should come into play with the job. There have been issues where people who are fully qualified for the job, are unfortunately not hired due to a poor screening system. Then, there are those who have been hired with little or no knowledge about the job that awaits them (Hunt 2009). “The issue at the top of the list, “feeling overworked” is largely a result of low staffing levels which is itself primarily caused by nursing turnover” (Hunt 2009). According to Steven Hunt, nursing is not an easy job and can definitely cause an overwhelming amount of stress. Hunt has done research on job management on a number of fields and has fifteen years of experience studying performance management. Doctors are not the only ones who are hardworking and completely stressed out. When it comes to nurses, they must be able to fully interact with patients and follow the specific orders of the doctors. It is a nurse’s responsibility to understand the patient and have a positive relationship with them. It does not only mean coming to work, signing in, and leaving just to receive a paycheck in the end. There is a lot of physical and mental work to a nurse’s job. Every patient is different and requires many different and unique needs. Some are not the nicest people and some are completely grateful for somebody to take care of them. For nurses, it does not matter how the personality of the patient is. What matters is that the duty of a nurse is to take care of every patient no matter what. This in itself can be very demanding every day. Imagine dealing with a patient that just doesn’t like you for just no apparent reason. A nurse must be able to put this aside and adhere to the patient’s every need. Physically, nurses are always on the floor walking from patient to patient fulfilling their duties. There is always something to do in the hospitals. With the huge workload and large amount of stress associated with the job, it is likely for nurses to just quit and leave their jobs. Not everyone is able to handle the stress left with nurses. There has been research concerning the relationships between nurses and their fellow coworkers. When it comes to jobs, not everyone is going to be your friend. Not everyone is going to be happy for you when you receive that higher position and greater pay. Not everyone is going to understand the amount of work you put in as a nurse in today’s world. “In nursing work environments, conflict among nurses is becoming a significant issue resulting in job dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and turnover”(Almost 2006). There is a huge lack of support between nurses in hospitals. “Antecedents stem from individual characteristics, interpersonal factors, and organizational factors. Individual effects, interpersonal relationships, and organizational effects are the main consequences of conflict” (Almost 2006). Once again, this suggests that there are many factors associated with as to why the environment of a nurse might cause conflict. It seems as if there are factors within factors. A nurse’s working environment will also include doctors since they are technically the bosses of the nurses. A nurse must be able to maintain a good relationship with doctors. There have been many issues with the nurse and doctor relationship. “It is common for physicians to go through medical training not understanding one iota of what it might be like to be a nurse working on the same patient team” (Secemsky 2012). It is known for doctors to believe that they are the “bosses” and this shouldn’t be the case. It is agreed that they do give the orders but just because there was more schooling involved in the biomedical major does not mean that nurses should not be understood to have just as much to deal with. For a relationship to be maintained, there must be a connection. Being understanding and communicating is very important for a relationship. If doctors are not able to understand the workload and life of a nurse, how can they be friends? How can they maintain a positive relationship in order to listen to one another for the benefit of the patients? Even though doctors are the ones who give the orders to the nurses, there must be a way to maintain a relationship for the nurses to actively listen and follow those orders. In order for two people to work together, it is vital to get along. Without a proper environment to work in, nurses will not be able to enjoy the career. There will always be tension in a workplace but if at extremes, it may be unbearable. The overall environment surrounding a person is very crucial to their sanity and well-being. As I have mentioned before, the workload of a nurse is huge. Nurses take care of patients, deal with many different people with different issues, follow orders from doctors, go through tons of training to be where they are in the hospitals and have gone through tough schooling. With all of this, why is there still a feeling of nurses being underpaid for the amount of work that they do? Does the huge workload of a nurse actually fit the salary given to them? Knowing that there is a shortage in nurses, it makes the lives of working nurses much harder. There is more work and stress associated with the job since there are less nurses to do it. “Another issue concerning underpayment is that nursing salaries are capped after so many years of experience. Even worse some newer nurses make almost as much as experienced nurses because of their starting salaries that begin higher than the experienced nurses did oh so many years ago” (Johnson 2014). The average salary of a registered nurse is can range from $40,000 to $84,000. This is a huge range for nursing jobs and around 10% of registered nurses fall in the lowest range. Since salaries are capped as mentioned above, the salary will not change for someone who has been a nurse for many years. Salaries for a nurse are also based on specific locations, specialty, and the years of experience in the field. A nurse living in New York will make approximately $6000 more than a nurse living in Florida. With this unfair advantage, nurses will most likely try to find a job that doesn’t fit this criteria (Stringer 2013). Since pay is considered to be low for a nurse, it is easy to say that a nurse is not really valued as greatly as they should be. Pay has a direct correlation to the value of a job. According to Hunt, nurses feel less respected for the amount of contributions they make and are not really recognized for their hard work. This will therefore lead to the drastic nursing turnover rate. Providing knowledge to others like me who are interested in the job really helps. It is evident that nursing turnover is a huge issue plaguing the profession, patients, and other large organizations. With all of these factors, there is much more as to understanding why nurses quit their jobs. These aren’t the only things that cause nurses to leave. There are many more reasons because every nurse is different with many different issues. Everyone is dealing with their own personal dilemma. There is really no specific number to solidify the amount of reasons why a nurse might quit his or her job. Overall, there are many opportunities to solve this huge problem that has been going on for many years and researchers everywhere are taking those opportunities to make the nursing profession loved by everyone again. ReferencesAlmost, J. (2006). Conflict within nursing work environments: concept analysis.?Journal Of Advanced Nursing,?53(4), 444-453.Hunt, S.T. (2009). Nursing Turnover: Costs, Causes, and Solutions. SuccessFactors Healthcare. Secemsky, B. (2012). Doctors and Nurses: A Relationship in the Works. Retrieved November 8th, 2012, from , H. (2013). Wealth of Opportunity. Gannet Healthcare Group. Retrieved September 17th 2013, from . ................
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