With the debate on how to provide health insurance to Americans now closed, we turn our attention to how to deliver healthcare to the millions of Americans that will gain access to healthcare.  Prior to passing of the bill, the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics forecasted a nursing shortage of 800,000 nurses by 2020.  If we add 30 million more people to the system, this number quickly tops 1,000,000.   This is a looming crisis that will create intense pressure on healthcare facilities to recruit and retain their nursing staffs.  Burnout and cross recruitment will become more severe and turnover will escalate.

These are daunting issues for healthcare facilities.  High turnover will sock them with staggering expenses as they work to replace the nurses who depart.  In addition, a VHA study shows a direct correlation between nursing turnover and mortality so the effect on the insured could be grim as well.  Leading facilities will have a recruitment and retention process that will help them minimize turnover in their key staff.  The most effective will focus on appealing to the most important job satisfaction criteria of nurses:

Flexible work schedules and work/life balance

A positive work environment

Professional development

Compensation

These retention processes will be well rounded.  They will incorporate a variety of efforts, from management training to technology and communication.  Nurses are smart and driven and they’ll see a phony program coming a mile away, so the successful facilities will make a genuine effort to deliver effective programs that appeal to the job satisfaction criteria that nurses hold most dear.  Strong efforts can be found at hospitals with Magnet status, an award given by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, but solid homegrown programs exist as well.

In comparison, the laggards will bounce from initiative to initiative and labor under the cost and disruption of high turnover that will sap their ability to deliver quality care.