Nurses
work in a fast-paced environment
, providing patient care, reassuring family members, and keeping up with evidence-based practices and procedures. That level of stress can leave many healthcare organizations with a high nurse turnover rate.
Do nurses have a high turnover rate?
What is the Current Nurse Turnover Rate? The current nurse turnover rate is
8.8% to 37%
, depending on region and nursing specialty. With a national average of 17.1% for registered nurse (RN) turnover year over year, healthcare leaders often struggle to keep up with staffing ratios.
What causes high turnover rates in nursing?
Personal reasons, external attractions and unsuitable working conditions
are the three common nurse turnover reasons revealed by hospital managers. Hospital managers admitted that nurse turnover disturbs hospital operations, further impacting the hospital’s revenue and costs.
How can nurse turnover be reduced?
Strategies to mitigate turnover include
reducing weekly and incremental overtime and eliminating mandatory overtime
. The development of shared governance programs that give nurses a voice in scheduling, workflows, and hospital policies can also help.
Why is healthcare turnover so high?
Healthcare employees of this generation are
starting to retire en-masse
, which is causing high turnover rates. This shortage increases the workload for existing staff as HR leaders in healthcare scramble to fill these positions, increasing the likelihood of stress and burnout.
What is the average turnover rate in 2020?
According to the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statics report, the annual total separations rate or turnover rate in 2020 was
57.3%
.
Why is nurse burnout a problem?
Regardless of the cause, nurse burnout has far-reaching consequences. Evidence from the American Nurses Association suggests that stress from long hours at work, rotating shifts and infrequent breaks slows down reaction times, reduces motivation, and
increases errors
— all of which can affect patient care.
Which area of nursing has the highest turnover rate?
1.
Behavioral health nursing
. Also known as psychiatric and mental health nursing, this specialty consistently tops the charts for high turnover. In the past two years, Behavior Health turned over 57.2 percent of their RN staff, according to the NSI report.
How much does it cost to replace a nurse?
Nationwide, the cost of replacing a registered nurse ranges from
about $22,000 to more than $64,000
, a sum reflecting expenses associated with filling temporary vacancies and hiring and training new staff.
Why do nurses leave their jobs?
Of those nurses, 31.5% reported
burnout
as a reason for leaving their position, making it the third most commonly cited factor. Other top reasons for leaving included a stressful work environment, lack of good management or leadership, inadequate staffing, and finding better pay/benefits elsewhere.
What is nurse turnover rate?
Nursing turnover can generally be defined as
the action of nursing staff leaving or transferring within their organizations
(Kovner, 2014) .
What does nurse turnover mean?
Some authors simply define RN turnover as any job move, whereas others define it as
leaving the organization or leaving the nursing profession entirely
(O’Brien-Pallas et al., 2006).
What is nurse retention?
In simplest terms: nurse retention
focuses on preventing nurse turnover and keeping nurses in an organization’s employment
.
How much does turnover cost a hospital?
The Cost of Losing Nurses
According to the 2016 National Healthcare Retention & RN Staffing Report, the average cost of turnover a nurse ranges from
$37,700 to $58,400
. Hospitals can lose $5.2 million to $8.1 million annually. The turnover rate for RNs continues to rise.
How does turnover affect healthcare?
High turnover rates can have a significantly detrimental impact on hospitals, patients, and healthcare staff. As a result hospitals may experience
increased contingent staff costs
. Staff turnover in hospitals is estimated to cost at least two times the pay of a regular employed nurse.
What is considered high turnover in healthcare?
A recent study by Compdata places the average overall turnover rate for healthcare employers at
about 19%
. The American College of Healthcare Executive’s survey on CEO turnover is similar. It shows the CEO turnover rate holding steady at 18% for the last three years, just shy of the record high of 20% set in 2013.
