Employment projections are estimating that Registered Nurse (RN) needs will continue to grow rapidly—at the same time a shortage in nurses is expected. Due to this shortage, it is critical for health care organizations to implement a firm training program, have direct leadership relationships, and target minority populations. Doing this will assist in filling RN openings and help create an organization that truly invests and cares for their nurses, which will positively impact retention.

Nursing school enrollment is not advancing fast enough to meet the RN demand, and with nurse baby boomers aging there will be fewer nurses available as the health care sector continues to grow. For example, in the Orlando, Florida region specifically, there are over 1,600 current RN job openings available, with 191 direct employers competing to fill those open positions. Simply put, there are not enough nurses to fill all those critical needs in the market. This shortage is impacting the current nurses’ job satisfaction, increasing their stress, and even driving some nurses to leave the profession.

Without nurses we cannot run our health care organizations, which is why having a process in place to train and support them is essential. To invest, you must have

a proper training program to support the nurse and ensure they are demonstrating safe quality care to patients. Certain organizations, such as AdventHealth, implement this in their Graduate Nurse Residency Program in the Orlando region. The first two weeks of the program are focused strictly on modules, simulations, and computer training. During that time the new nurse goes through a three-day simulation lab to provide hands-on learning before they even enter the department. The following months are focused on individual preceptor training. The nurse is partnered with an experienced nurse for a certain amount of duration (8-16 weeks depending on the acuity of the unit) to train the new nurse and will be with them every single shift side by side so they have the resources and training to be successful. After the focused preceptor training, the new nurse continues to be provided educational courses and simulations as needed. This shows the nurse that the company is investing in their future.

See also
Keeping an Open Mind: My Brief Career as a Licensed Home Care Services Agency Registered Nurse

Proper training programs and support for nurse staff is essential for the nurse to feel like they have more opportunity, and desire to stay and grow as part of the organization. With the shortage of nurses, you need to ensure the nurses that you do have feel supported and uplifted to reach their full potential. Providing this training will provide a higher percentage of nurses to feel valued enough to want to stay in that organization and to have the desire to give back full circle to the organization that invested in their learning and education.

Leadership involvement is also a direct way for organizations to increase retention. If a nurse is feeling overworked, they need to at least feel appreciated for all they do. Open communication is critical for retention—and to really understand where your employees are coming from. Nurse leaders need to uphold regular one-on-one meetings and gain a professional relationship with their employees to understand their struggles. During this meeting it is also important for the leader to ask intuitive questions, so they are aware of the things that motivates their nurse employees to continue being a nurse every day to help others. Remind them why they started this career, so even through the negative days they resort back to the positive reasons why they started their nursing career.

In today’s recruitment efforts, the candidate pool of nursing talent is getting smaller since nursing schools can’t accommodate the applicants. Even though the schools can’t accommodate the volume of applicants, the nursing programs still need to ensure their selection process is fair in diversity selection as well. Health care organizations also need to focus on out of the box recruitment efforts targeting different populations—specifically, minority nurses. Health care in the United States is seeing a high influx of minority patients. When the number of minority patients increase, so does the demand for minority nurses to care for those patients. It is very important for the team of nurses at an organization to be well-rounded and diversified to care for patients from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

See also
Is There Really a Nursing Shortage?

Implementing training programs, leadership engagement, and targeting minority nurse nurses will not only help with recruitment and retention, but also project longevity amongst nurse employees. Nurses need to feel wanted and valued. Nursing is one of the toughest jobs, but when an employer makes them feel respected, appreciated, and gives them the proper tools to be successful, they will be more likely to continue to stay within an organization that supports them wholeheartedly. Every organization needs to focus on these areas to be able to retain their nursing staff and provide the utmost care to their patients every day.

Kayla Carleton
Latest posts by Kayla Carleton (see all)
Ad
Share This