Nursing: Staff Retention in Long-Term Care Facility (Essay Sample)

Staff retention in long-term care facility
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Abstract
Retaining good nurses has become challenge in many countries as nurses are fewer yet the population requiring specialized care attention is growing. It entails retaining specialized skills making nurse retention to be best choice for healthcare providers to minimize cost associated with hiring new ones. High turnover effects productivity of nurse as well as treatment outcome of the patient. Nurses cite poor working conditions as the major reason for them resigning or retiring. Therefore, organization engaging nurses through constant consultation and taking into account the concerns raised will help improve retention of nurses.
1 Introduction
Nurses have major roles in provision of better healthcare in hospitals, homes and any other healthcare facilities. Nurses are involved in taking care of children, elderly, persons with specialized care, cancer patients and age related condition among others. Servicers provided in long-term care facilities may not necessarily be medical assistance care such as short-term rehabilitation, assistance after surgery or care from medical doctors. It involve long term support and services such as eating, bathing, dressing, or getting in and out of the bed to people suffering from chronic illness, disability, mental illness, or injuries.
2 Statement of the problem
Retention of qualified nurses seems to be a major challenge to healthcare providers. Nurses are required to provide care to sporting accidents, spinal cord injuries, strokes, brain tumors, multiple sclerosis and brain tumor patients. With the rapid increasing population worldwide, there is need for better long-term care services to many elderly with such specialized needs starting as early as sixty years old. Nurses’ high turnover in long-term care facilities are attributed to poor working conditions, poor remuneration and high workloads. This happens when the nurses are fewer compared to their demand. The growing nurse shortage and growing population of elderly people requiring specialized attention have created need for retention of qualified nurses in long-term care. This article therefore focuses on development of strategies both clinical, education or social in order to make long-term retention of nurses more attractive.
3 Justification
High turnover suggest nurse dissatisfaction, which reflects poor progress of care facility. Nurses when kept long in a facility will develop fast knowledge of facilities and services offered reducing need for training new nurses. They develop strong knowledge base and are likely to make few mistakes, increasing their productivity. Job insecurity is main concern of nurses and tends to affect overall performance. Long-term terms of employment boost morale of nurses and ensure stable work, which in turn reduces cost associated with hiring new staff. It is therefore important for any health care facility to devise means for retaining nurses in long-term basis.
2.0 Literature review
Qualitative study conducted by Buchan (2002) in Scotland depicts unique trend in nurse labor market. Nurses have been reported to work in hospitals, clinics, private health facilities, prison, and armed forces and in local authorities. Nurse comprises the old in Scotland who tend to work for fewer hours and retire at an early age posing challenge to the government on replacement of lost skills. A quantitative study taking applicants and accepted students was conducted to check whether the rural and urban students differ in terms of their acceptance and retention to serve in rural areas. Acceptance was the major concern that needs to be addressed to solve problem of under staffing in remote areas. Urban students tend to secure employment despite similar qualification in nursing education with rural students. Rural dwellers prefer services of urban student to rural student, which affects provision of care in rural set up (Bigbee and Mixon, 2013).
Quantitative study on the reason for high turnover in Danish eldercare services was carried out by involving participant who were working or have retired from elderly care services in 35 Danish Municipalities (Clausen et al., 2014). Respondents attributed adverse working environment as their driving force for leaving their jobs. Those who resigned cited underutilization of their professional skills, low influence at work and high job demands as the main reason for resigning. The young quitted job early to prevent long-term sickness and depression, which are caused by poor working conditions. The retirees who have worked for long period experienced back pain as compared to newly recruited staff. This shows the influence of nurse’s health on job retention.
Fourteen nurses who had served for more than five years in long-term care facilities in Australia shared their concerns and experience working with elderly. They raised concerns that government’s reforms were conflicting with nurses’ traditional roles and responsibilities. The participants felt devalued as their roles in taking care of elderly were treated with negativity by the neighbors, media and family members. Most nurses lost skills since they applied few when dealing with elderly (Venturato et al., 2007). Work satisfaction of nurses is important in nurse retention a part from better pay. Therefore, employers need to focus on improving number of staff as well as training to ensure better service delivery to elderly. Administrative support to nurses helps in improving satisfaction and retention of nurses (Morgan and Lynn, 2009).
3.0 Synthesis of evidence
To solve the problem of workload, experienced senior nurses should be given opportunity to mentor other newly trained or registered nurses to reduce problem of under staffing. In this way, nurses will not have to work in full time. Nurses need...