NURSING RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN FOR NURSING RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION IN HEALTH CARE
Moora Trabosci
Columbia Southern University
MANAGEMENT ACTION PLAN FOR NURSING RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION
Introduction
The recruitment of nurses is a critical aspect in any healthcare facility. As such great care and diligence should be employed to attract high-quality professionals who will aid the facility to achieve its mission statement and goals. Increasingly over time, it has been hard for an organization to recruit nurses. The demand for nurses currently makes the recruitment of already few nurses an arduous task. Although this challenge is crosscutting in various industries, the healthcare service industry has been the hardest casualty due to the gaps in retaining and recruiting new nurses to attend to the ever-increasing number of old patients(Cameron et al., 2004). As much as healthcare facilities try to grapple with the challenge of attracting higher caliber recruits, they are confronted with the hurdle of retaining their best. Experience is a vital social capital to any organization and cannot be qualitative measures as it is an accumulation of many years of training and integration. Healthcare facilities should strive to provide a conducive environment that incentivizes health workers to remain in their organizations. Job satisfaction and good working terms are key motivators that drive nurses to stay in their posts(Hayhurst et al., 2005). Currently, many healthcare facilities are losing their best professionals. This sustained hemorrhage of professionals is a ripple effect to the institution involved and patients who are forced to bear the burden of looking for other qualified and skilled professionals.
Opportunity for growth
There exists an avenue that organizations can utilize to hire and retain their best nurses. The sudden exit of top recruits poses a serious challenge to healthcare as they are forced to look for replacements while ensuring that the remaining nurses do not leave. It is essential for healthcare facilities management to arrange for exit interviews on the employees who exit. This will provide invaluable insight on the organization on areas that it can improve on to be able to attract top talent and retain them(Harris, 2000). It is more likely than note that a disgruntled employee might state the following areas of concern as the contributor for them leaving their post: Limited opportunities for career advancement, Poor working conditions, and Inadequate salaries and perks.
These complaints are symptoms of the underlying condition, which, if the managers of healthcare facilities adequately address, will be able to retain their best professionals. The welfare of nurses in any organization should be prioritized. This is because their turnover has a direct impact on the well-being of the healthcare facility. Also, nurses who exit from healthcare facilities cause further financial strain on the organization in terms of compensation. Perhaps from the above-enumerated list of some of the job dissatisfaction that employees face, the biggest issue has been the pay inequality among nurses who work for long hours. Nurses are stretched thin by work demands that they fail to have a healthy work and life balance, resulting in them exiting from the facility.
To counter these challenges, healthcare management should try to incorporate the views of the nurses in their operational policies. The first step should address the gaps in remuneration. Nurses should be adequately compensated for the effort and sacrifices they make towards the success of the organization. A clear policy on job promotion should be developed so that nurses who have worked and stayed loyal to particular health facilities are motivated to pursue higher challenges by taking job positions relevant to their experience.
Objectives
The primary objective is to attract qualified professionals while at the same time sealing the gaps which cause the healthcare facility to lose their best nurses. To increase the retention of nurses, job satisfaction will have to improve. To measure job satisfaction among nurses, surveys will be conducted to assess their levels of appreciation and sense of loyalty to the healthcare facility. From their responses, a milestone will be set, which will serve as a yardstick to measure the organization’s success in retaining their best talent. It is safe to assume that majority of their issues will be associated with work conditions. As such the management should strive to improve the working condition by addressing the underlying issues.
Cause of actions
To attract the best nurses, the health facilities should first ensure that it has a good working environment. Nurses are tempted with a safe and conducive working environment. If the healthcare facility has a reputation of mistreating and overworking its staff, such a negative rating is ingrained in potential recruits who shy away from it(Ginter et al., 2018). Also, the leading cause for low retention levels is associated with the working conditions that the staff is exposed to. Working for long hours with breaks, poor pay, and inconsiderate management adds to poor job satisfaction among employees.
According to surveys and research conducted, the following are some of the actions which healthcare facilities can incorporate to ensure they retain their best nurse and attract high-quality ones :
Training and education. Senior and high-level management officers in a healthcare facility should be trained and equipped with the requisite skills to understand turnover rates and ensure job satisfaction is achieved (Gopee & Galloway, 2017).
Developing a strategic policy that addresses the various needs of the employees. This is a short-term strategy that is designed to have an immediate impact on retaining nurses.
Implementing the strategic policy designed above. Resources should be coordinated and channeled to achieve the above goal.
Evaluation of the progress. The policy and its effects should be regularly assessed to ascertain whether they achieved their desired goals. Where they have been challenges in achieving them, continued policy refinement should be employed to address the underlying staff issues.
Visual representation of the cause of action
Training
policy fomulation
implementation
Evaluation
Accountability
To implement the above management plan effectively, there must be strict timelines and individuals responsible for its rollout (Ginter et al., 2018). Each action should be implemented with the agreed timelines. The senior and midlevel managers are responsible for overseeing its implementation.
Conclusion
By ensuring a conducive working environment, an organization can attract the best nurses and retain its staff. Healthcare facilities should move with speed to address disgruntled nurses who leave to save them on operational costs. A sustained effort to regularly review internal operating policies will go a long way in identifying the gaps and addressing them before they spiral out of control. One area that healthcare managers often neglect is job satisfaction, yet it is the bedrock of job retention and recruitment. As such, managers should ensure it is achieved as part of long-term goals.
References
Cameron, S., Armstrong-Stassen, M., Bergeron, S., & Out, J. (2004). Recruitment and retention of nurses: Challenges facing hospital and community employers. Nursing Leadership (Toronto, Ont.), 17(3), 79–92.
Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Gopee, N., & Galloway, J. (2017). Leadership and management in healthcare. Sage.
Harris, D. H. (2000). The benefits of exit interviews. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 28(3), 63–66.
Hayhurst, A., Saylor, C., & Stuenkel, D. (2005). Work environmental factors and retention of nurses. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 20(3), 283–288.
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