Nurse turnover rates are a concerning issue across the United States. Burnout, distrust in leadership, lack of connection, compassion fatigue, and challenging schedules are just a few of the problems that cause nurses to seek out different areas of employment.
The average turnover rate for nurses in 2023 was 18.4%. While this is lower than the 2021 rate of over 27%, it is still a problem that decreases patient safety, increases hospital costs, and leads to frustration among staff.
Nurses, especially nurse leaders, can and should take steps to improve the culture within their organization to achieve better staff retention. The following are good practices to improve morale, decrease nurse turnover rates, and increase the sustainability and efficiency of nursing practice.
Related: Building Your Credibility and Team Skills: Building Your Own Credibility On and Off the Team
Self-awareness
While it takes an entire team to provide good patient care and keep a hospital system functioning, each team member must develop good self-awareness. They must understand what they can do to improve individually. Research confirms that emotional intelligence and individual personality traits are essential to achieving organizational goals and affecting positive change in healthcare.
Many experts recommend that people work on these “big five” skills to become a better teammate and leader:
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Social skills
Each of these skills can be learned and strengthened. Research published in 2019 shows that just 30 hours of emotional intelligence training can dramatically improve emotional intelligence scores.
Promoting trust
Healthcare teams face life-and-death situations every day. Physicians must trust that the nurses will administer medications appropriately and report any concerns or changes in patient condition in a timely manner. Nurses must trust physicians to make medical decisions and treat patients appropriately. The team must trust the pharmacist to double-check each medication before it is sent to the unit.
Mistrust between members of the healthcare team can lead to frustration, moral distress, burnout, and high nurse turnover rates. As a nurse, there are many ways you can establish trusting relationships with your coworkers.
Have honest and open communication
Honest and frequent communication is one of the cornerstones of a trusting relationship. If you do not understand a physician’s order, ask for clarification. If you have a concern, respectfully ask for an explanation. If you think your patient is in danger, speak up. It is better to ask a question or ask for clarification than to make a mistake.
In addition, healthcare workers should try to use closed-loop communication whenever possible. This means listening to the speaker, then repeating back to them what you heard, and waiting for an affirmative confirmation. This ensures that all parties communicate clearly and avoid misunderstanding.
Avoid complacency in your daily tasks
Many nurses perform a lot of the same tasks each day when they come to work. They may draw up the same medications frequently, check the same emergency carts, and even see the same patients each day.
Approximately 400,000 patients experience harm due to preventable medical errors each year. Many of these errors occur because a healthcare provider fails to follow a checklist, skips a double-check, or does not pause to ask a question when something is off.
Establish trust by treating each procedure, and medication, and double-check with the same attention and caution as you did the very first time you performed the task. Every healthcare team appreciates having nurses who respect the profession and avoid complacency.
Seek out opportunities for learning
Healthcare is rapidly changing. New research is constantly being published, new medications are being distributed, and new technology is being tested. Nurses who remain at the forefront of the industry are sure to gain the trust and respect of the rest of their team.
A healthcare team should be able to count on their members and leaders to stay up to date with current recommendations and best practices.
Promoting teamwork to reduce nurse turnover rates
Unfortunately, workplace bullying is still a problem within the nursing profession. Many nurses, especially those working in high-acuity units, know and understand the phrase “nurses eat their young.” Older and more experienced nurses still have a tendency to bully their newer and less experienced team members.
As a nurse leader, it is important to promote teamwork and call out workplace bullying when you see it. Speak highly of your teammates. Rather than chastising those who struggle, find ways to help them reach their potential. If you are in a leadership position, consider pairing nurses together with opposing strengths and weaknesses, and allow them to learn from and assist each other.
Reliability and accountability
The best teams are made up of people who are reliable and who take accountability for their own actions. The most reliable people tend to share these common traits:
Self-discipline
Those who show self-discipline are on time and on-task. They do not procrastinate their work and tend to be good at prioritizing.
Follow-through
Team members with good follow-through make sure their responsibilities are taken care of, regardless of the challenges they face. They know how to delegate tasks to other trustworthy staff members and do not make promises they cannot keep.
Firm and fair
Being a good teammate or leader does not mean you always make the rest of the group happy. A good leader is firm with boundaries and rules, and fair when addressing concerns. It may be uncomfortable to speak up when someone makes a medication error, is late, or is bullying other nurses—but it pays off.
Integrity
Integrity is about more than being honest. It is about giving your best each day you come to work. Your team should know that they can trust you to have their backs, to give your best to your patients each day, and to be honest when you are struggling.
Spreading joy and positivity
There is no doubt about it: Nursing is a challenging job. Helping people through debilitating illness, death, and injury every day can be exhausting, and it is no wonder that healthcare workers struggle with compassion fatigue and burnout.
On the other hand, healthcare can also be a career filled with hope and friendship. Remind people to appreciate each moment of their life. Emotions and attitudes are contagious, and seeking out the joy in each day can encourage others to do the same.
Of course, it is important to lend a listening ear when your coworkers or patients are struggling but try not to let yourself wallow. Give compliments when you can, express gratitude often, and encourage those who need it. It takes the effort of everyone to establish a better nursing culture and reduce nurse turnover rates.
