Retaining the Best: Proven Strategies for Retaining Your Top Nursing Talent

The UK is facing a severe nursing shortage. Thus, it’s no surprise that nurses are burned out and exhausted, exacerbating the shortage problem.

Looking ahead, the outlook is also very concerning. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) anticipates a global shortage of 4.5 million nurses by 2030.¹ With such alarming numbers and predictions, finding effective ways to retain nurses has never been more crucial. This creates a huge challenge for healthcare organisations: how to keep their best and most experienced nurses from leaving.

But Why Are Nurses Leaving?

While the nursing crisis significantly contributes to turnover, it’s not the sole reason nurses leave their positions. Several internal workplace factors also contribute to the challenge of nurse retention, including:

• Burnout: The COVID-19 pandemic worsened long-standing workload issues, staffing shortages, and emotional strain, leading to widespread burnout among nurses. This exhaustion can prompt nurses to seek less demanding roles or leave the profession altogether.
• Lack of professional development opportunities: Ambitious nurses crave opportunities to grow their skills and leadership abilities. Stagnant career paths can lead to disengagement and a search for new challenges elsewhere.
• Work-life imbalance: Demanding schedules and long or inflexible work hours often make it difficult for nurses to maintain a healthy work-life balance. This imbalance can significantly affect their mental health and, ultimately, their decision to stay in the profession.
• Unfavourable work environment: Factors such as lack of autonomy, limited support from management, and poor work culture can impact job satisfaction and push nurses to seek greener pastures.

The Value of Retaining Your Top Global Nursing Talents

So why is the nursing shortage a problem? Nurses provide immense value to healthcare organisations in multiple ways. The benefits of investing in retention strategies are far-reaching:

• Upholding Care Quality: Retaining skilled and experienced nurses is critical for maintaining the highest standards of ethical, quality patient care.
• Maximising Resources: High nurse turnover is extremely costly due to recruiting, onboarding, and lost productivity expenses. By reducing turnover, healthcare providers can reallocate resources more effectively.
• Clinical Expertise: Veteran nurses possess deep clinical skills and knowledge honed over years of experience, which are invaluable for ensuring consistent, high-quality care.
• Patient Advocacy: Experienced nurses are steadfast advocates committed to their patients’ needs and care quality.
• Continuous Training: Senior staff play a vital role in mentoring and integrating new hires, promoting continuity of care.
• Stable Care Teams: High turnover disrupts teamwork dynamics and care continuity when experienced nurses depart frequently.

Strategies for Retaining Your Top Global Nursing Talent

Here are ways to provide your nursing staff with competitive pay, career growth, and a supportive workplace.

A. Competitive Salaries and Benefits

Today’s competitive healthcare industry requires fair and competitive pay to recruit and retain top nursing staff. This is because top talents often have many alternatives and want fair remuneration. Commensurate pay and transparency encourage dedication to patient care, boost trust, and decrease unfairness.

By comparing wages to regional and national averages, you can ensure your nurses are paid fairly for their experience and competence. Other compensation strategies include:

• Compensation comparison: Use reliable sources, such as price polls from professional nurse groups or healthcare industry magazines, to find competitive starting pay.
• Change shift differentials: Offer additional incentives for working nights, weekends, and holidays to recognise the extra effort required. This approach helps ensure adequate staffing during these critical times and motivates nurses to take on extra shifts.
• Retention bonuses: To show appreciation for their skills and loyalty, high-performing nurses could be rewarded with retention bonuses.

Comprehensive benefits are as vital as compensation. Nurses value strong health insurance plans, retirement savings plans with employer-matched contributions, and financial initiatives like student debt repayment aid.

A competitive compensation and benefits package also shows your organisation cares about nurses’ professional and personal success. Ultimately, this boosts job satisfaction and demonstrates to potential recruits that your company values its employees.

B. Career Development and Advancement Opportunities

Studies show that nurses who feel their skills are underutilised are more likely to quit.² Nurses desire to learn, grow, and contribute their skills at a deeper level. Therefore, offering clear career advancement that aligns with their professional goals is a powerful tool for employee retention and motivation.

Some retention strategies for your nurses’ professional growth include:

• Mentorship programmes: Pair experienced nurses with less experienced ones to share expertise, establish trust, and form a support network.
• Tuition reimbursement and continuing education: Support nurses seeking higher degrees or specialist certifications with tuition reimbursement and continuing education. This demonstrates your dedication to their professional development and keeps them current on best practices.
• Leadership training: Provide nurses with the skills and knowledge to become leaders within and outside the organisation. Promoting from within also benefits the company and gives nurses a clear career path.
• Specialty certifications: Assist nurses in obtaining specialty certificates. This may enhance their skills, lead to new company prospects, and boost their earnings.

Investing in professional development allows nurses to fulfil their full potential. This promotes long-term commitment and involvement, benefiting both the nurses and the organisation.

C. Creating a Supportive Environment

In today’s competitive healthcare environment, a healthy and engaging work culture is no longer a perk; it is essential to retain nurses. Exhausted and overburdened nurses are more likely to quit or leave the profession. This trend in the health professional staffing market indicates that institutions with a positive work environment are more likely to hire and retain nurses.

Some strategies include:

• Practice safe staffing levels: The recommended nurse-to-patient ratio is one nurse to every four patients (1:4), depending on the severity of the patient’s needs.
• Strong leadership and clear communication: Leaders who actively listen to nurses, communicate clearly, and show empathy tend to build trust and support. These leaders encourage open communication and psychological safety, allowing nurses to voice their needs and concerns without fear. Regularly solicit feedback from nurses and keep them informed about retention efforts.
• Conduct stay interviews: Proactively understand your nurses’ needs and concerns through informal conversations or even anonymous nurse retention surveys. Be sure to analyse nurse turnover data to identify areas for improvement.
• Recognition and appreciation: Regularly acknowledge and celebrate nurses’ achievements, big and small, and show respect for their hard work. This can be done through public recognition programmes, personalised notes of gratitude, or even small gifts.
• Teamwork and collaboration: Build a collaborative team environment where nurses feel valued and supported by their peers. This fosters a sense of community and shared purpose, reducing burnout and improving job satisfaction.

Investing in a supportive work culture yields significant benefits. Studies have shown that valued and supported nurses are more engaged, productive, and loyal. This leads to better patient care, staff retention, and workforce stability. Prioritising a supportive workplace also makes healthcare firms attractive employers in the competitive staffing sector.

ATTRACT AND RETAIN TOP GLOBAL NURSING TALENTS WITH OPPVIA!

Oppvia can help you recruit top global nursing talents and manage your new nurses so they can avoid burnout. With our direct-hire services, you’re sure to find passionate, service-oriented nurses. We’ll take care of them just as you do with your patients. Contact us today!

References

1. Boniol M, Kunjumen T, Nair TS, et al. The global health workforce stock and distribution in 2020 and 2030: a threat to equity and ‘universal’ health coverage? BMJ Global Health 2022;7: e009316.

2. Lagasse, Jeff. “RN turnover in healthcare on the rise.” Healthcare Finance, 3 Jan. 2023, www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/rn-turnover-healthcare-rise. Accessed 04 June 2024.