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5 Reasons Nurses Want to Leave Your Hospital
Your nurses have one eye on the door if you do any of the following.
Although economic woes abound, nurses are planning their exit strategies and will make a move when things improve. A recent survey from healthcare recruiters AMN Healthcare found that one-quarter of the 1,002 registered nurses surveyed say they will look for a new place to work as the economy recovers.
Are your nurses engaged, committed employees? Or are they biding their time until they can go somewhere better? To predict whether you face an exodus, take a look at the following five reasons why your nurses want out.
Nurses work 12-hour shifts that always end up longer than 12 hours due to paperwork and proper handoffs. At the end, they are physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. Forcing them to stay longer is as bad for morale as it is for patient safety.
Some overtime is acceptable. People get sick, take vacations, or have unexpected car trouble and holes in the shift must be filled to ensure safe staffing. Nurses are used to picking up the slack, taking overtime, and pitching in. In fact, overtime is an expected and appreciated part of being a nurse. Many use it to help make ends meet. Mandatory overtime, however, is a different matter. Routinely understaffed units that rely on mandatory overtime as the only way to provide safe patient care destroy motivation and morale.
Take a look at the last couple of years' news stories about RN picket lines. Most include complaints about mandatory overtime.
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Comments are moderated. Please be patient.
Elaine Kinsey (11/18/2011 at 3:01 PM)
My comment is to those who do not make the grade. All RNs have had minimum scores for exams and those that do not pass are out of the program, period. A 73 score or even a 80% informs me that only 73%- 80% of the time you knew what to do for a patient. This is unacceptable in school and is unacceptable to me as a Director of an ICU. My advice, is to go through the program again and not give up so easily.
Deb Watson (9/5/2011 at 2:15 PM)
When will they ever learn enough is enough! I can remember when volunteers left the hospitals b/c nurses were loosing jobs back in the mid 70's. Then the medical assistants (who are trained both in clinical and administrative) got shifted b/c the nurses were hired at doctors' offices for less pay and higher education. Over the years, medical assistants haven't been recognized for doing all of what nurses do in the doctors' offices nor utilized in the hospitals as part of the on going education of our medical field. In fact, to higher my education and ultimately be of greater service, I attended a 2 yr. nursing school w/i the hospital. With 2 semesters to graduation and $22,000 in debt, I was CUT from the accredited RN Associate program. How could this happen? I was given 2 weeks notice to retake the final from the previous year that I had passed with the manditory 80% and above. Not only was this in addition to each semester's manditory practicals and nursing calculations but put in a noisy hallway to take it. Out of the 80%, I scored 73, was immediately CUT and lost my only income of 16 hours from a student nurse job. Although totally numb from having been put out of being at the hospital 7 days a week for school, clinicals and work, I called and wrote to the deans that only acknowledged missing the cut off by 7 points. I did, however, receive a congradulations for the bill paid in full!! It saddens and angers me to see the continued numbers of opening for nurses when there's such a lack of mentorship to begin with right under their noses.
Art Wallace (8/20/2011 at 7:45 PM)
Nursing morale and/or burnout is also influenced by inadequate career progression opportunities and a sense of belonging and making a difference. As a profession, we've emphasized education and certification as pathways to advancement; but, in reality, it's only the progressive institutions that recognize the value of retaining loyal, talented, and motivated staff that invest in this essential resource. It's incumbent on nursing leadership to articulate the importance of nurses at every level in making hospitals safer for patients and that positive outcomes are a symptom of nursing team and leaders who are appreciated.