Nurse Turnover and Job Satisfaction (Essay Sample)

Nurse Turnover and Job Satisfaction
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Nurse Turnover and Job Satisfaction
High rates of nurses turnover is a worrying trend in the nursing healthcare (ANA, 2015). A study by ANA (2015) indicates that job satisfaction is the primary cause of the alarming rate of the high nurse turnover. The researcher defines nursing turnover as the voluntary movement of the nurses to other organization, positions or location either due to poor working conditions or unfavorable policies. Besides, the high turnover rate has proven to be costly since the state invests a lot in the training of the nurses. Also, the issue has caused shortages of nurses in hospitals thus jeopardizing the safety of the patients. Many health managers are having a challenge in getting a permanent solution to the problem through adoption of leadership strategies that promotes engagement of employees and job satisfaction to help in alleviating the problem (ANA, 2015)
As noted by Ageza et al (2014) the heavy workload of hospital nurses is one of the leading causes of dissatisfaction of nurses in the American health system. The practitioners are having higher workloads than before. The massive workload is attributed to the fact that the demands are roles of nurses have increased yet little effort has been made to enhance the supply of the physicians. Also ANA (2015) depicts that high turnover rates have lead to a reduction in the number of nursing practitioners a fact that has caused an increase of hours that an individual nurse is supposed to work. Studies by ANA (2015) reports that high exit levels are posing a threat to the safety of patients in the hospital thus leading to medical errors as the available staff is overwhelmed with the workload (ANA, 2015).
In the United States, for instance, the demands for nurses has increased in the recent past due to a rise in the aging population (ANA,2015).Purdy (2015) Argues that as the baby boomer population becomes older, millions of Americans gains access to healthcare under Affordable Healthcare Act thus increasing strain in the healthcare services and facilitiesFurthermore,economic pressure has forced many health facilities to scale down the number of nurses so as to remain relevant and enhance competitive advantage in the volatile market unlike in the previous years. The strategy has lead to a decrease amounting to hours that a nurse is supposed to attend to a patient and the patient’s length of stay in hospitals. As a result, the nurses take care of patients who are sicker than in the past. Therefore, their work is more intensive (BMC, 2014).
Poor working conditions and heavy workload has adverse consequences on the state of the healthcare system. To begin with, the situation has harmful effects on the safety of patients. Furthermore; the shortage due to high turnover has negatively affected job satisfaction among nurses. Also, work system factors have contributed to the increase in the workload. Nurses while are expected to perform non-professional duties like delivering and retrieving food trays, transporting patients, housekeeping and ancillary services (ANA,2015 ).The cumbersome and demanding workload has increased job dissatisfaction and burnout which intern contribute to the high turnover(White,2015 ).
The most commonly used unit level workload measure is the nurse –patient ratio. The patient ratio can be used to compare patient outcomes about the nursing staffing (Charles, 2011).An investigation by Pascle and Ayse (2015) reveals that substantial nursing workloads at the unit level have a negative impact on the patient outcome. The study further suggests that an increase in the workload level is the leading cause of stress among nurses thus job dissatisfaction.
Besides dissatisfaction at the workplace, the high nursing workload has been one of the threats to the patient’s safety. The nurse’s workload has a definite effect on the time that a nurse allocates to complete a given task. With the heavy workload, a nurse may not have enough time to perform activities that have a direct impact on the patient’s safety precisely in the Intensive Care Unit. In addition, substantial nursing workload tends to reduce the time that nurses spend communicating and collaborating with physician thus affecting the quality of nurse-physician collaboration ( ANA,2015).Furthermore, a heavy workload can lead to poor nurse-patient communication that is one of the evidence-based strategies in nursing care ( White,2014).
A research by Ageza et al (2014) has indicated that there is a direct correlation between the working conditions of the nurse like the workload and satisfaction at work. The researchers further contends that dissatisfaction of the nurse can lead to low morale, high turnover, absenteeism, poor performance at the job. These factors are potential threats to the quality of the care being offered to the patient and the effectiveness of the organization.
The poor working environment is a core stressor of nurses in a variety of care settings like the ICU (BMC, 2014).A heavy workload can cause burnout, distress or emotional exhaustion. Those nurses who are stressed may not be able to perform their duties efficiently because of the reduction of their cognitive and physical resource (Purdy, 2011). This phenomenon is likely to have a negative impact on quality of services and the safety of the patient.
Medical errors that put a patient’s health at risk are one of the challenges that grip the nursing profession. High turnover due to job dissatisfaction has caused nurse shortages in hospitals. This has in turn lead to an increase in the workload (ANA,2015 ).execution and knowledge errors according to (Charles,2011) have been caused by time pressure the nurses face on duty thus reducing the time devoted to a nurse to ensure safety of critical tasks thus creating conditions for errors and unsafe patient care (Charles,2011)
Factors to causing nurse turnover
The study helps in bringing into perspective the various factors that contribute to a high nurse turnover and dissatisfaction. The research also lays a foundation of the different innervations that can be employed to help in alleviating the problem since it causes an increase in workload due to shortages of the nurses (Charles, 2011).Management issues, low morale, heavy workloads, a lot of time being spent on non-nursing issues are a major contributor to high graduate nurses turnovers (Charles, 2011).
Socio-Cultural factors
Social-cultural factors have a great impact in enhancing job satisfaction and reduction of the high graduate nurse turnover rate.Organisational culture to a larger extent influences the ability of one to produce quality work (ANA, 2015).A conducive organizational culture provides an opportunity for a newly recruited nurse to learn and express his creativity that in turn cultivates a sense of pride and professional satisfaction. In addition, an organization which has a culture of recognizing the efforts of those nurses who are exceptional in their duties is more likely to retain nurses than that one which does not. Social satisfaction as noted by ANA (2015) is derived from those relationships that are created at the workplace. The ability of an organization to develop a good team spirit, physical rewards from fellow supportive staff and autonomy at work are important aspects of cultural job satisfaction (Pascle & Ayse, 2015).
Satisfaction at work is developed by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are internally acquired experiences that entail a sense of accomplishment, personal achievement and prestige. Whereas external factors are derived from conditions in the practice environment which are not limited to proper remuneration, working environment and the availability of the recourses (ANA, 2015).
According to Pascle and Ayse (2015) lock’s range of effect there is the most famous model of job satisfaction. The theory is formed on the premise that job satisfaction is determined by the discrepancy between an individual wants in a job and what the job is offering. Furthermore, the degree to which one attaches value to some social facets at the workplace like autonomy has an important role to play in his job satisfaction, positively if his needs are satisfied or negatively if the requirements are not fulfilled compared to one who does not value that facet at the workplace (Purdy, 2011).
A research conducted by ANA (2015) in the US shows that there is a big relationship between job satisfaction and marital status .Those nurses who are married are likely to stay at one job for longer that those who are not married. Also, those nurses who hold managerial positions and who have families showed more job satisfaction hence a lower turnover (BMC,2014 ).The age of a nurse has a greater impact on job satisfaction and turnover (ANA,2015 ).
According to ANA (2015) women comprises of the clear majority of the workers in the nursing profession compared to men. There is a notion among members of the society that nursing profession is a female-dominated profession. The stereotype has forced many men to leave the profession or move to other sectors where they can get more respect thus leading to a high job turnover (ANA, 2015).
Political factors
Performance appraisal politics has a bigger role to play in an employee's job dissatisfaction and turnover rate. Appraisal is always meant to evaluate the performance of the employees. The practice should open a window for the employer and employee to openly discuss the organizational expectations and the achievements of the nurse for future development, many employee are always dissatisfied with the appraisal schemes a fact that makes them to consider moving to other places (Ageza et al, 2015).In some cases, the appraisal has lead to a bad relati...