Nurse Replacement and Retention

Response to Peer Discussion Post

In the present write-up, my colleague opted to focus on RN retention. As my colleague points out, the demand for nurses has been on an upwards trend in recent times. This is largely true owing to the aging nurse workforce. With the shortage of nurses, clinics ought to put in place strategies to reign in high turnover rates. In the case of Clearwater Hospital and Clinics (CH&C), the turnover rate has been identified as 26%. This is a rather high turnover rate, and thus an indication that something ought to be done to remedy the situation. It would be prudent to note that as my colleague points out, there are numerous causes of a high nurse turnover. One of the most prominent cause, according to Perry, Richter, and Beauvais (2018) is nursing dissatisfaction. More specifically, in the words of the authors, “nursing dissatisfaction contributes to turnover and nursing shortages which, in turn, adversely affect patient outcomes” (p. 4945).

Second Response

To a large extent, there is definitely some difference between the costs of retaining nursing staff and costs of replacing the said staff. Available evidence indicates that the cost of replacing nursing staff happens to be higher than the cost of retaining nursing staff. The cost of replacing staff could be conceptualized in terms of not only recruitment costs, but also disruption costs and downsides. The said disruption costs could be inclusive of, but they are not limited to, patient deferment, etc. As a matter of fact, in the words of Kelly, Gee, and Butler (2021), “in addition to the disruption to patient care, the loss of a nurse leaving their position is also associated with significant financial costs, estimated from $11,000 to $90,000 per nurse with up to $8.5 million in associated wider costs” (p. 98). These are the savings that could be made by implementing the various nurse retention approaches.