Effective Approaches in Leadership and Management
Nursing turnover is one of the most important issues facing the health care industry today. Turnover rates increase costs for health care facilities and decrease the quality of care for patients, as new nurses constantly need to be trained and a lack of experience throughout the department can mean that patients suffer ultimately from a continuous rotation of novices (Twibell, 2012). Han, Trinkoff and Geiger-Brown (2014) have shown that various factors can impact turnover rates: nurses can be burned out by working too many shifts or consecutive hours; they can feel overburdened and unsupported; they can feel that they are not empowered to actually care for the patients they way they were taught they should. All of this can contribute to high turnover rates in nursing. This paper will discuss the ways leaders/managers can address the problem, the approach that I would personally prefer, and a possible funding source to address this issue.

As Huber (2014) notes, there are many differences between the concept of leadership and the concept of management in health care. For the problem of nursing turnover, both leadership and management skills are required. Leadership focuses on interpersonal relationships, motivation, inspiration, vision, and effecting a real change within the organization by forging a new path and getting everyone to “buy in” to it. Managing focuses on scheduling, controlling, directing, marshaling resources, organizing, and communicating the day-to-day affairs. Leaders take a big picture approach that lets them then focus on the individuals under their care. Managers take a micro perspective that allows them to set personal feelings aside and arrange those under their care in the most effective ways possible.

I would expect nursing leaders and managers to approach the issue of turnover differently. Leaders should approach it by getting to understand directly from the nurses what the problems leading to their desire to quit are and what could be done to help them want to stay. The leader would be required to read the research (there is a ton on this issue), and that should go into the process of formulating a response. The leader would have to use skills like emotional and social intelligence to get to the heart of the matter by asking questions such as: Are the nurses being overworked? Are they not getting enough emotional support? What is the major issue? Servant...…possess in order to reduce the burden of transitioning into professional nursing careers.” This is the type of grant that could be very supportive in making sure we obtained the funding required for addressing the problem of nursing turnover.

In conclusion, nursing turnover is a considerable problem that nursing leaders and managers will have to face. The problem stems from dissatisfaction among nurses (they are overworked, fatigued, burned out, and disillusioned about their ability to provide quality care to patients because of a compromised workplace environment). To address the issue, nurses need to be made to feel that they are empowered to devote themselves to patients and that they do have what it takes to succeed. The nursing leader can do this by communicating a strong vision to the nurses and supporting their needs, emotionally and socially. The manager can do this by making sure enough nurses are always scheduled to cover the slack. There are also training programs funded by HRSA that can be used to make sure all nurses understand what is required of them and that they can indeed change things for the better and make the facility a place where nurses love to work.

…