In many hospitals around the whole world, the issue of nursing turnover is not new: a number of nurses leave their jobs because of different reasons, try to find some new options, and consider their own interests and the level of satisfaction with the work they have to perform. One of the main problems connected with nursing turnover is the inability to identify the essence, true reasons, and possible outcomes of this concept. Researchers make numerous attempts to contribute this particular sphere of life, and medicine in particular; still, more such attempts are necessary because nursing turnover is regarded as an important aspect in the performance and success of healthcare and different organizations that need a professional, properly trained, and educated nursing staff to provide patients with care.
Three peer-reviewed articles are chosen for the analysis to explain the idea of nursing turnover and evaluate its impact on healthcare: Hayes (2006) and her team explain the reasons for instability in the nursing workforce by means of a literature review; Jones (2008) focuses on nurse turnover costs and their impact on the quality of nursing staffing; and Murrells, Robinson, and Griffiths (2008) consider satisfaction as one of the possible predictors of nursing turnover. Each article is a unique vision of the problem of nursing turnover and a separate approach to understanding how crucial the working conditions under which nurses have to develop their skills and knowledge are.
Many authors identify nursing turnover as “the process whereby nursing staff leave or transfer within the hospital environment” (Hayes, O’Brein-Pallas, Duffield, Shamian, Buchan, Hughes, Laschinger, North, & Stone, 2006, p. 238) that can be both voluntary or involuntary, internal or external depending on the conditions under which nurses decide to change their work. Personal satisfaction remains to be one of the reasons why nurses leave their jobs. However, Murrells, Robinson, and Griffiths (2008) also admit intention, nurses can express, as a powerful predictor in nursing and “a useful marker of future UK nursing” (p. 11). This is why it is wrong to believe that only job satisfaction defines the decisions of nurses to continue or quit their main sphere of work. Further research will help to identify and comprehend many other factors that are associated with nursing turnover and come up with the outcomes. For example, turnover touches upon different aspects of nursing. High rates of turnover may lead to the situations when organization’s capacities are limited and “patients may be denied the access to the nursing services they need” (Jones, 2008, p. 17).
In general, the three articles under analysis help to understand better what nursing turnover is, why it takes place, and what outcomes are possible. The point is that nursing turnover is a current problem, and it should be solved properly not to deprive people of the required portion of professional healthcare. Nurses maybe not as experienced and specifically educated as doctors are; however, their role remains to be crucial in any hospital. Patients cannot be just diagnosed and cured accordingly. They have to be treated on a proper level. Doctors do not offer such services; these are nurses, who make patients’ treatment full and recovery faster. This is why, if nursing turnover may lead to the decrease of medical services, it should be analyzed and overcome by any possible means.
References
Hayes, L.J., O’Brein-Pallas, L., Duffield, C., Shamian, J., Buchan, J., Hughes, F., Laschinger, H.K.S., North, N., & Stone, P. W. (2006). Nurse turnover: A literature review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 43(2), 237-263.
Jones, C.B. (2008). Revisiting nurse turnover costs: Adjusting for inflation. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 38(1), 11-18.
Murrells, T., Robinson, S., & Griffiths, P. (2008). Is satisfaction a direct predictor of nursing turnover? Modelling the relationship between satisfaction, expressed intention and behaviour in a longitudinal cohort study. Human Resources for Health, 6(22), 1-12. Web.