Nurse turnover and the role of nursing managers in workplace conditions

¶ … Leadership and Management of Nursing

Nurse turnover refers to the rate at which nurses quit work in relation to the rate at which they are employed. Just like any other employees, nurses are affected by a number of issues that can either make them stay at work or quit. In a situation where nurses are subjected to a situation that is unfavorable and unfair to them, they will eventually stop working. The reverse happens when the nurses are subjected to a favorable treatment. In any case, nurses are employees work under difficult conditions, with sometimes having to work at night outside their official working hours. This means that they need to be treated cautiously to avoid losing them.

Causes of nurse turnover

The main factors that influence nurse turnover include salaries, working conditions, and interpersonal relations that the management will have placed in the workplace. The hospital management should ensure that they avail sufficient salaries to the employees in order to make their lives better. Salaries are the best motivators to work. In this sense, the people have to be made to understand that they are at work to serve humanity and that salaries should not be a determining factor. However, a decent amount should be paid to them in kind. Apart from salary, the employers need to provide good working conditions for employees. They need to ensure that the workplace is such habitable and supportive of human life, as it should. It is also important to ensure that the employees are subjected to manageable working hours (McAllister, 2011). In order to enhance fairness, they must work for average hours in shifts of about six to eight hours and replacing the already tired ones. It is also important to have the workers working in such environments that support their social well-being

Nursing Management Approaches

A number of approaches can be used to monitor the process of nursing. Nursing is a special profession that can best be served using a total control management style or through a management-by-objective method. What will determine the style of management to be used are the objectives that the nurse leaders want to achieve. In case the nurse leaders intend to give freedom to the nurses to work as they wish, the management-by-objectives will be the best method to use. This method of management is important since it gives room for innovation among the nurses (Labor-management issues in the health care field, 2011). It is also important to have the nurses working in a free environment for the sake of cultivating a sense of responsibility and accountability. This will go a long way in establishing trust and accountability. In essence, the management of the nursing environment will have free time to do all they may wish to do.

On the other hand, total control of the nurses at the workplace is also necessary. It gives the nurse leaders and the managers, by an extension, the power to oversee the activities happening at the hospital from a first-hand approach. This way, minimal deviation from the norm will occur. This control is also important when there is a need to minimize errors at work. It is a conservative and frugal way of handling work. However, the right method to use will depend on the management's objective; whether to allow a free hand to the nurses or totally control their activities. The desired method should be one that is in agreement with the management's objectives. However, management by objectives seem more appealing from the fact that this method of management saves both leaders and the juniors the pressures of work (McAllister, 2011).