About a month ago, I wrote about the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) AACN Nurse Residency Program,TM which dramatically decreased turnover rates for nurses in their first year on the job. The blog post prompted Daniel McCarthy, a retired airline pilot and flight instructor, as well as an aircraft mechanic, to write a comment. At 53, McCarthy went to nursing school and later became a nurse. Despite his experience in the tough field...  Read More »

If you’re a young nurse, I’m sure you rely on older, more experienced nurses for help. Not only is their expertise valuable, but older nurses make up so much of the nursing workforce that hospitals need them. The nursing shortage is certainly looming, making it more important than ever to ensure that older nurses who wish to stay working beyond retirement age can do so, reports Rebecca Hendren for HealthLeaders Media in her latest...  Read More »

Nurse retention is often achieved by nurse satisfaction—but how do you achieve true job satisfaction in a hectic healthcare environment? One answer might be medical mission trips. An interesting piece written for HealthLeaders Media by Rebecca Hendren explores what medical mission trips can do for RNs by profiling a nurse who went to Haiti with a group of healthcare professionals.  Though salary is an obvious factor in job satisfaction,...  Read More »

When nurses become jaded and angry every day, what are they, and those around them, to do? A new piece in NursesTogether.com says if you’re a jaded nurse, it’s time to reevaluate and ask yourself why you got into the profession, how you have made a difference so far, and what you love about nursing. If these answers are enough to remind you that you want to be a nurse, then reset your attitude and give it your best, columnist...  Read More »

An Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) study has found that more than half of emergency department (ED) nurses have experienced physical violence at work, according to an ENA press release. Physical violence includes getting spit on, hit, pushed or shoved, scratched and kicked. The more detailed statistics are just as alarming. One in four nurses have experienced such abuse more than 20 times in the past three years, and one in five nurses...  Read More »

Along with sorting through the emotions and memories from her medical mission trip to Haiti, Bonnie Clair, MSN, RN, had another tall task: She had to sort through the pictures. “I took about 400,” she says. “I took pictures of Haiti and the Haitian people as well as the people I went with. I didn’t want to forget anyone.” Clair, the retention project manager at Cox Health in Springfield, MO, went on a medical...  Read More »

The numbers are staggering. In the span of a week, Bonnie Clair, MSN, RN, and a group of 25 other healthcare professionals saw 2,196 patients and gave out 6,500 prescriptions. “Yes, we were very busy,” she says. Clair, the retention project manager at Cox Health in Springfield, MO, went on a medical mission trip to Haiti for a week in March. It was seven days she’ll never forget. After a few weeks of letting the experience...  Read More »

Editor’s note: This excerpt is adapted from HCPro’s new book “Nurse Retention Toolkit: Everyday Ways to Recognize and Reward Nurses,” by Lydia Ostermeier, MSN, RN, CHCR and Bonnie Clair, BSN, RN. Leaving nursing school to enter the workforce can be a difficult transitional period for many new nurse graduates. And literature reveals that 57% of new nurse graduates will leave their first position within two years of...  Read More »

Recruitment—and even more importantly retention—are becoming more and more significant as the United States continues to deal with its nursing shortage. In order to retain nurses, hospitals must be places that people are “dying to work at.” But it is hard defining what those hospitals will look like. Regardless of what the future holds for healthcare and hospitals, most experts agree that recruiting and retaining enough employees...  Read More »

Happy Nurses’ Week! In any given year, nurses will have their share of bad days. This stress can affect their attitudes, their performance, and your ability to retain them. Take a look at some of these creative ideas below used in Nurses’ Week past. Incorporate them as last-minute ideas this year or stash them away for the future. Hot off the press Jennifer Clarke, director of education at Madison County Hospital in London, OH,...  Read More »