Practice Problem: Nurse turnover rate and lack of retention are issues that have an impact on safe patient care, patient mortality, quality outcomes, and patient experiences in the acute care units at the identified project setting. Turnover leads to excess labor utilization of overtime and increased hospital costs. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was (P) In acute care hospital nurses, how do (I) nurse retention strategies (C) compared with no nurse retention strategies (O) reduce nurses’ intention to leave and increase job satisfaction over (T) eight weeks? Evidence: Twenty-one articles were reviewed that identified autonomy, recognition, acknowledgement, communication, and transformational leadership as nurse retention strategies, which contributed to a positive workplace environment and led to improved job satisfaction and nurse retention. Intervention: The intervention consisted of focused communication that included staff recognition and acknowledgement by the nurse leaders of each unit, which had a positive effect on the workplace environment and job satisfaction. Outcome: The results indicated a statistically insignificant change in job satisfaction and intent to stay yet did show a clinical significance. Conclusion: The benefit of the project was that there was a clinically significant change in behaviors including: verbal expressions of increased job satisfaction, notable positive attitudes and hopefulness, as well as staff resilience. Consistent leadership and a larger sample size may produce statistical significance in a future study.
Factors Associated with Functional Decline in Older Adults After Discharge from an Acute-Care Hospital
