Canada does not have enough aboriginal nurses and aboriginal nursing faculty. Consequently, there is an inadequate number of nurses to meet both on- and off-reserve and community health care staffing needs. In 2002, Health Canada asked the Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing to facilitate a national task force that would examine aboriginal nursing in Canada. The task force engaged in an extensive literature review, conducted a national survey of nursing programs, and explored recruitment and retention strategies. In 2007, the association prepared an update on the current status. In this article, the authors review the progress made during the intervening five years in the recruitment, retention and education of aboriginal nursing students.
To investigate the relationship between dimensions of the psychosocial work environment and the intent to quit among a new generation of nurses.
As a new generation of nurses enters the workforce, we know little about their perception of their current work environment and its impact on their intent to stay.
A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 1002 nurses.
The nurses who intended to quit their positions perceived a significant effort/reward imbalance as well as a lack of social support. The nurses who intended to quit the profession perceived a significant effort/reward imbalance, high psychological demands and elevated job strain.
The balance between the level of effort expended and reward received plays an important role in young nurses' intent to leave.
Nurse Managers must offer Nexters, from the beginning of their career, a meaningful work and supportive environment. Without the efforts of the organization to improve the work environment and support nurses, this generation may not feel valued and move to another organization that will support them or another career that will offer fulfilment.
Retention and recruitment strategies are essential to address nursing workforce supply and ensure the viability of healthcare delivery in Canada. Knowledge transfer between experienced nurses and those new to the profession is also a focus for concern. The Multi-Employer/United Nurses of Alberta Joint Committee attempted to address these issues by introducing a number of retention and recruitment (R&R) initiatives for nurses in Alberta: in total, seven different programs that were introduced to some 24,000 nurses and employers across the province of Alberta in 2001 (the Transitional Graduate Nurse Recruitment Program) and 2007 (the remaining six R&R programs). Approximately 1,600 nurses participated in the seven programs between 2001 and 2009. Of the seven strategies, one supported entry into the workplace, two were pre-retirement strategies and four involved flexible work options. This project entailed a retrospective evaluation of the seven programs and differed from the other Research to Action (RTA) projects because it was solely concerned with evaluation of pre-existing initiatives. All seven programs were launched without a formal evaluation component, and the tracking of local uptake varied throughout the province. The union and various employers faced challenges in implementing these strategies in a timely fashion, as most were designed at the bargaining table during negotiations. As a result, systems, policy and procedural changes had to be developed to support their implementation after they became available.Participants in the programs indicated improvements over time in several areas, including higher levels of satisfaction with work–life balance, hours worked and their current practice and profession. The evaluation found that participation led to perceived improvements in nurses' confidence, greater control over their work environment, decreased stress levels, increased energy and morale and perceived improved ability to provide high-quality care. However, no formal implementation plan had been developed or made available to assist employers with implementation of the programs. The findings highlight the need for more discipline in communicating, implementing and evaluating initiatives such as those evaluated retrospectively in this project. In particular, key performance indicators, baseline data, monitoring mechanisms and an evaluation plan need to be developed prior to implementation.
This study examined demographic differences between practising and non-practising physiotherapists, reasons for leaving the profession and factors that might influence return. A mailed survey was sent to three groups of Ontario physiotherapists: 1) those who had not renewed registration to practice (Cancelled); 2) those who were registered but not practising (Inactive); and 3) a group of actively practising therapists randomly selected (Control). The overall response rate was 76%. Significant differences among the three groups were in personal income and membership in the professional association (CPA). The majority of those not practising were not working outside the home and approximately half planned to return. The two most important reasons for not working in physiotherapy were: a) raising a family; and b) the desire for new challenges and further education. The most important factors that would influence return were: a) opportunity for flexible hours for those planning to return; and b) upgrading of the profession for those not planning to return. Family related and professional/job issues for those not working in physiotherapy and differences between practising and non-practising groups are discussed. Strategies for retention and return are recommended.
To investigate the risk of turnover among targets of bullying at work.
Exposure to bullying seems to leave targets with intentions to leave their workplaces. However, it is uncertain to what extent they actually leave.
Data were collected by questionnaires in a three-wave study among Danish healthcare workers at the time of graduation (T1 ), 1 (T2 ) and 2 years (T3 ) later. We followed 2154 respondents who participated in all three waves.
The first year after graduation, 9.2% reported being bullied at work, 1.8% frequently. Follow-up analyses showed a strong relationship between exposure to bullying at T2 and turnover at T3 [odds ratio (OR) for frequently bullied = 3.1]. The inclusion of push factors such as low social support and low sense of community, intention to leave and ill health did not change the relation between bullying and turnover significantly. Three reasons for quitting stood out among reasons given by the bullied respondents: poor leadership, being exposed to negative behaviour and health problems.
Bullying may be costly to an organization in terms of staff turnover and subsequent recruitment and training of replacements. IMPACT FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Managers should regularly monitor the psychosocial work environment. To prevent bullying local policies and procedures should be developed, implemented and evaluated.
The purpose of this study was to explore oncology nurses' perceptions about recruitment and retention.
Competition among healthcare organizations to recruit and retain qualified nurses is a real-life challenge. Focusing attention on human resource planning in oncology is highlighted by both the worsening nursing shortage and cancer incidence.
A participatory action research approach was used and 12 focus groups with 91 cancer nurses were conducted across Canada to collect data about strategies that could improve recruitment and retention.
Four themes emerged reflecting oncology nurses' beliefs and values about organizational practices that attract and retain nurses and they are as follows: (1) recognizing oncology as a specialty, (2) tacit knowledge no longer enough, (3) gratification as a retaining factor, and (4) relationship dependent on environment.
Participants highlighted leadership, recognition and professional and continuing education opportunities as critical to job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Recruitment and retention were viewed as a continuum where organizational investment begins with a well-developed orientation and ongoing mentorship to ensure knowledge development. The challenge for nurse leaders is to use the evidence generated from this study and previous studies to develop professional practice environments that facilitate the cultural changes needed to build and sustain a quality nursing workforce.
The purpose of this study was to describe the career patterns and job satisfaction of Ontario university and college nurse educators. A descriptive survey design was employed using mailed questionnaires. The sample comprised 60 nurse educators, 30 from three universities and 30 from three colleges. Forty-four returned the completed questionnaire, giving a response rate of 73%. The variables about the career patterns and goals of the nurse educators included their past and present job satisfaction. Career patterns were described as stable, double-track, interrupted and unstable. Similarities and differences were compared and described in relation to these factors. Significant differences in job satisfaction were found between university and college faculty on nine of the 36 job characteristics (for example, leadership style, independence, autonomy and salary). There were no significant differences in job satisfaction for each of the career patterns and the selected demographic variables of age, years in nursing education, educational level and salary between the university and college faculty.
Findings from 20 corporations from the Attrition and Retention Consortium, which collects quit statistics about 475,458 professionals and managers, extended and disputed established findings about who quits. Multilevel analyses revealed that company tenure is curvilinearly related to turnover and that a job's past attrition rate strengthens the (negative) performance- exit relationship. Further, women quit more than men, while African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans quit more than White Americans, though racial differences disappeared after confounds were controlled for. African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American women quit more than men of the same ethnicities and White Americans, but statistical controls nullified evidence for dual discrimination toward minority women. Greater corporate flight among women and minorities during early employment nonetheless hampers progress toward a more diversified workforce in corporate America.
Ontario is currently experiencing a nursing shortage crisis. Recruitment and retention of nursing staff are critical issues. In response, retention strategies have been developed by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The Late Career Nurse Initiative is one such strategy. This innovative program encourages nurses age 55 and older to remain in the workforce by providing opportunities to use their nursing experience in less physically demanding alternate roles for a portion of their time. The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group has developed a clinical coach program in forensics that matches these veteran nurses with new graduates or nurses new to forensic psychiatric nursing. The program has resulted in retention rates of more than 91% after 1 year. This article provides background about the program and highlights its outcomes.
This paper is a report of a pilot study to examine the relationship of nursing intensity, work environment intensity and nursing resources to nurse job satisfaction.
There is an ever increasing amount of information in hospital information systems; however, still very little of it is actually used in nursing management and leadership.
The combination of a retrospective time series and cross-sectional survey data was used. The time series patient data of 9704 in/outpatients and nurse data of 110 nurses were collected from six inpatient units in a medical clinic of a university hospital in Finland in 2006. A unit-level measure of nurse job satisfaction was collected with a survey (n = 98 nurses) in the autumn of 2006. Bayesian networks were applied to examine a model that explains nurse job satisfaction.
In a hospital data system, 18 usable nurse staffing indicators were identified. There were four nurse staffing indicators: patient acuity from nursing intensity subgroup, diagnosis-related group volume from work environment subgroup, and skill mix and nurse turnover from nursing resources subgroup that explained the likelihood of nurse job satisfaction in the final model. The Bayesian networks also revealed the elusive non-linear relationship between nurse job satisfaction and patient acuity.
Survey-based information on nurse job satisfaction can be modelled with data-based nurse staffing indicators. Nurse researchers could use the Bayesian approach to obtain information about the effects of nurse staffing on nursing outcomes.
