Hospitals Losing Workers as Healthcare Jobs Grow

At The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where many of the new nurses are recent graduates, the hospital's HR department has established a training program that engages new employees into the system and has kept their turnover rate at an average of 10% over the past five years, according to Karen Bryer, Director of Employment.

HR is involved, she says, in assigning new nurses precepts and mentors, and in coordinating orientation classes before new hires start clinical work. There is also an emphasis on understanding the goals and aspirations of new nurses, she says.

The HR department coordinates performance management classes for managers, so they can not only learn how to have impactful conversations with employees about their careers, but how to be engaged in their employees' goals as well.

"This is how you keep superstars around," says Bryer.

Bryer credits OSU Wexner Medical Center's success with retention to a lot of shared governance in their nursing department with teams and committees. "You need to be able to offer your employees the opportunity of a voice at a table," she says.  The hospital has achieved Magnet recognition from the American Nurses' Credentialing Center of the American Nurses Association.

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