Impact of Nursing Attitude on Retention Marie Wendt

Impact of Nursing Attitude on Retention Marie Wendt RN, BSN Purpose: The purpose of this concept analysis was to explore the effects of negative attitudes of experienced critical care nurses and its impact on retention of novice nurses over a 12 month period of time. Background: Nursing turnover costs have soared for healthcare organizations. A possible key factor in nurse turnover can be related to negative behavior. Numerous graduate nurses are subject to negative attitudes or behaviors which are uncivil in nature and can lead to an undesirable turnover. There are numerous writings on healthy work environments, however, minimal directly relate the impact of the attitudes of senior nurses toward the newer novice nurse and the retention of that nurse. Results: Significant numbers of nurses demonstrate an intent to leave their current position due to unhealthy work environments. The evidence displays that nursing attitudes, including behaviors of incivility have a great bearing on employment satisfaction and impending turnover rates. Nurse leader incivility directly correlates to retention factors and turnover intentions of nursing staff. A lack of strategies to identify and prevent incivility will further encourage attrition of new nurses adding massive financial burden to an already stressed healthcare system. References: Method: Using the keywords burnout, critical care nursing, turnover, healthy work environments, incivility, novice, recruitment and retention. An initial search of 3 data bases, Cochrane Database, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL), and Pub Med, scholarly studies and literature review resulted in 27 articles being selected. After refining the critical appraisal of the quality of the literature review, 5 key articles were selected for this concept analysis. A variety of methods for analysis were employed in the literature selected. These methods included 1 quantitative, 3 descriptive and 1 predictive non-experimental design Conclusions: Negative nursing attitudes can adversely impact nurse retention. It is essential to perform additional inquiry to look at the impact of negative attitudes of seasoned nurses on turnover rates. Further investigation should focus on the relationship of nurse to nurse incivility between senior and novice staff nurses, especially to focus on first year turnover. Nurse leaders should be aware and incorporate retention strategies to eliminate such attitudes from the work environment.