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Differing Approaches of Nursing Leaders and Nursing Managers in Addressing Nurse Turnover

A study conducted by the National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report in 2020 indicated that the national hospice turnover rate stood at 17.8%, which was an increase of 0.7% from the previous year. Despite appearing rather negligible, the small increase poses a threat to the overall health of the nation. Currently, researchers have established that nurse turnover is among the many challenges affecting healthcare institutions, and leaders have not yet conceptualized the best approaches to mitigate it. To effectively understand the meaning of turnover, this essay will discuss its effects on the quality of care and patient safety, the differing roles undertaken by the leaders and nurse managers in addressing the issue, and the best leadership style that could be used to manage the issue. 

Effects of Nurse Turnover on the Quality of Health care and Patient Safety

The first effect of nurse turnover is that is it reduces the safety of patients. A recent survey indicates that nearly 20% of nurse leaders believe that new nurse recruits are fully prepared to undertake their responsibilities in a safe as well as effective way. Nurse-sensitive patient outcomes such as chronic ailments, ulcers, accidents, falls, and mental health is challenging to achieve with a taskforce of continual new graduates (Nantsupawat et al., 2017). Relatively, it is impossible to establish the necessary trust, teamwork, as well as effective communication needed to realize patient safety objectives when there is constant turnover among new and old nurses. Patient confidence in healthcare institutions dwindles when patients and their families are skeptical of the care quality of new nurses. This damages the organizational reputation forcing many patients to opt for other hospitals with experienced practitioners.

In connection to this, nurse turnover reduces job satisfaction among employees hence affecting the patient output (Nantsupawat et al., 2017). When new nurses are constantly recruited, the level of teamwork reduces. Also, a reduction of nurses in healthcare institutions exposes others to intense workloads that are demanding and strenuous to experienced nurses. In some cases, other patients would hardly be attended to, later contributing to patient dissatisfaction.

Similarly, nurse turnover increase failure-to-rescue rates and mortality (Kaddourah, Abu-Shaheen & Al-Tannir, 2018). This is usually frequent in the ICU and Emergency department where patients are at critical stages. Patients suffering from chronic ailments require constant monitoring if they are to fully recover from their conditions, However, a reduction of nurses at these departments reduces the probability of rescuing patients and often leads to an increase in the mortality rate.

Professional Standards of Nursing

To rectify the issue of nurse turnover, practitioners have to be aware that they are accountable for their clinical decisions as well as actions and for maintaining competence during their careers (Porter-O’Grady, 2019). This professional standard is patient-centered as it compels nurses to promote the most effective possible outcome and curtail patient exposure to more harm. Also, it encourages nurses to persistently augment their knowledge base via experience, continual education, and present guidelines.

Ethics is another professional standard that addresses the issue of nurse turnover. Besides non-maleficence, nurses have to be trained on the importance of beneficence (Porter-O’Grady, 2019). When offering care to patients, nurses first have to demonstrate compassionate and be ready to exploit positive actions to help others achieve their goals. Demonstrating this form of commitment increases the will of an individual and teamwork, hence reducing turnover. Moreover

Another ethical principle that could potentially reduce nurse turnover is justice. During care, nurses are required to demonstrate justice by treating every patient equally (Porter-O’Grady, 2019). All the same, this character could easily be developed if the nurse executives treat their subordinates with respect. Establishing a sense of equality in the healthcare environment will induce nurse retention hence increasing patient outcomes during care.

Differing Roles of Nursing Leaders and Nurse Managers

Every institution, notwithstanding how big they are or the industry they are part of, need virtuous leadership to be successful. Good leaders are an essential part of effective leadership. However, in most cases, good leadership does not come inherently (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). It requires leaders to introduce theories or utilize certain skills to ascertain effective leadership. In the healthcare field, the most applicable skills for good leadership include strong ethics, good organizational skills, efficient leader, nurturing the growth of employees, and fostering connections as well as a sense of belonging.

Many people assume that a leader is the same as a manager but this is not the case since both have different skills and roles (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). In a healthcare setting, a nursing leader sets the institution’s vision while a nurse manager follows it. In line with nurse turnover, nurse leaders always envision the prospects of their institutions and mandate it to nurse managers to keep employees in line with the core company goals and values.

Another role for nurse leaders is to take risks while managers control the risk. When controlling nurse turnover, nurse leaders are always willing to try new approaches to reduce nursing turnover even if the considered choice is bound to fail (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). This is because leaders are aware that failure is a process of learning and if one remains resilient, success would be certain. On the other hand, nurse managers would work to minimize the risk by controlling the problem. In broader prospects, nurse leaders would embrace the problem of nurse turnover and try to adapt to the new norm but nurse managers would introduce new measures to mitigate the issue.

Additional Aspects of Leadership and Management

Nurse leaders and managers have to ensure that there is good communication between them and their subordinates. Good communication not only plays a role in enhancing patients’ healthcare experience but also in achieving productivity as well as maintaining strong working relationships (Korth, 2016). This is because employees will be motivated to express their skills and ability to sustain the firm’s operations. Nurse leaders and managers have to invest their time and energy to increase output, productivity, and morale. Motivated nurses will strive to improve patient care and would hardly consider moving to a different institution. 

Another aspect that nurse leaders and managers could initiate to control nurse turnover is expressing gratitude to their juniors (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). When employees are recognized, appreciated, and recommended for their efforts, their morale increases exponentially. This form of satisfaction will guarantee employee retention and increased productivity in the future.

The best leadership style that nursing leaders and managers could use to reduce nurse turnover is delegation (Wuryani et al., 2021). Delegation initiates a sense of responsibility among the subordinates who will feel the urge of attaining the set goals. When nurses are given responsibilities, they would hardly ponder on resigning or moving to a different institution as they feel that they have a duty to achieve.

In conclusion, nurse turnover has been a serious issue in the medical industry as researchers have been able to establish that it affects the quality of care. Nurse turnover reduces trust and patient confidence affecting the general healthcare of patients. To control the rate of nurse turnover, nurse leaders and managers have to ensure that there is effective communication in the institution and that nurses are gratified for their unmatched efforts in promoting general healthcare.