Nurse retention focuses on ensuring that nurses remain in an organization’s employment by preventing their turnover. Retention of nurses results in low nurse turnover costs such as advertising and recruitment, decreased productivity, and orientation and training costs. Mentoring is one of the ways of the various ways through which the retention of employees is achieved. Mentoring pairs new nurses with experienced nurses who serve as active listeners, provide support, and nurture the new staff until they adopt the ways of the organization (Halkos, 2011). The mentees are also taught how to recognize and deal with stressors related to their work. Mentoring, therefore, ensures that the mentees experience minimum stress and fatigue. It enhances job satisfaction and motivation among them (Halkos, 2011). Satisfied and well-motivated employees stay in the organization longer than the unsatisfied and unmotivated ones.
Lewin developed the Force Field Analysis model to explain the process of cultural change in organizations. He theorized that change is affected by two types of forces that are the driving and the restraining forces. The driving forces push towards a change position while the restraining forces maintain the status quo (Sutherland, 2015). The two forces of change influence the adoption of bar code scanning in medical administration. The need for a more accurate medical administration acts as the primary driving force for the change (Sutherland, 2015). Other driving forces include support from management and massive financial investment in the system. On the other hand, however, factors such as the costs involved in acquiring the necessary equipment and training the organization’s personnel to use the equipment act as the restraining forces for the adoption.
Nurse residency programs refer to the strategies used by healthcare organizations to retain their new nurses. They vary between organizations, but they are learner-focussed and aim at supporting the development of competency in the nursing practice. The programs expose the new nurses to the real nursing practice and allow them to use and enhance their assessment and clinical skills. They gain experience, competence, confidence, and the readiness for independent practice (O’Lynn, 2013). They also develop a decreased sense of threat, stress, and fatigue associated with adapting to a new working environment. Additionally, nursing residency enhances job satisfaction among the resident nurses, which, in turn, reduces turnover rates and hiring and orientation costs for the healthcare organizations. Improvements in terms of nurse retention and the quality of the health care provided are the end results of nurse residency programs (O’Lynn, 2013).
- Halkos, E. (2011). Nurse Retention Review. Providermagazine.com. Retrieved 27 June 2015, from http://www.providermagazine.com/archives/archives-2011/Pages/1011/Nurse-Retention-Review.aspx
- O’Lynn, C. (2013). A Man’s Guide to a Nursing Career. New York: Springer Pub. Co.
Sutherland, K. (2015). Applying Lewin’s Change Management Theory to the Implementation of Bar-Coded Medication Administration | Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics. Cjni.net. Retrieved 27 June 2015, from http://cjni.net/journal/?p=2888
