Staff members’ emotional health and well-being, as well as staff retention, are among the top workforce challenges identified by nurse leaders responding to the latest survey by the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and consulting firm Joslin Insight.
Of the 1,781 nurse leaders — managers, directors and chief nursing officers / chief nursing executives — who responded to the August survey, 3% came from long-term acute care or post-acute care facilities such as skilled nursing and inpatient rehabilitation facilities.
“When we look at the top two, emotional health and well-being and staff retention, relative to each other, emotional health has actually improved slightly, but staff retention has worsened,” Hunter Joslin, CEO at Joslin Insight, said during a webinar presented in conjunction with the release of the survey results.
Workplace violence and bullying were reported as challenges to emotional health and well-being, with 83% of chief nursing officers reportedly having witnessed workplace violence and 72% report having witnessed workplace bullying and incivility. Seventy-two percent of managers said they had witnessed bullying and incivility, and 51% had witnessed violence. Seventy-four percent of the responding directors said they had witnessed bullying and incivility; 57% had witnessed violence.
When nurse leaders were asked whether they intend to leave their jobs in the next six months, 13% of the respondents said they did plan to leave, and 25% said they are considering leaving. According to the data, 13% of the respondents had changed jobs during the previous six months.
“Notably, 45% of nurse managers said that they either plan to leave or are considering leaving in the next six months,” Joslin said.
Burnout and exhaustion are the biggest threats to nurse leader retention, according to the survey results. Improving professional/personal life balance and offering flexible scheduling might help, he said.
Access to personal protective equipment and other equipment has slipped farther down the list of concerns because availability “has increased dramatically,” Joslin said. “It was actually once the top challenge, and now it comes down under 1%.”
