Nurse Turnover: The Revolving Door That Must Be Stopped

• Nurse turnover rates are at an all-time high due to factors such as burnout.
• For every 1% of nurse turnover in the U.S., it costs healthcare facilities upwards of $306,000 per year.
• Nursing CE Central has the latest on how we can contribute to decreasing national nurse turnover, further improving the global nursing shortage. Check it out!

Have you been personally affected by nursing turnover? Most likely, the answer is yes. 

Nurse turnover can happen for various reasons including retirement, wanting a change in the profession altogether, or even burnout.  

Regardless of whatever the reason may be, nurse turnover rates are higher than they have ever been.  

In fact, according to the Nursing Solutions Inc. “2020 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report,” the average national turnover rate for hospitals stands at 17.8%.  

From the outside looking in, this number may not seem astronomical, but let’s view it from a different perspective. 

The report outlines that for every 1% of nurse turnover, it will either cost or save the facility $306,400/year, wow.  

How can we stop it?

What are the outcomes and effects of nurse turnover?

Why is there a constant revolving door of nurse turnover in hospitals? 

Outcomes of Nurse Turnover

Facilities spending millions of dollars

Integrated engagement solutions firm, IGA Group, highlights that a hospital can spend anywhere up to $5 million per year solely on new employee recruitment, trainings, and rehiring processes. 

Contributing to the global nursing shortage

The higher the nurse turnover rate is, the more stressed, overworked, and exhausted the remaining nurses are. In turn, this also can lower employee morale.

From housing arrangements to penalties from the facility they are contracted with, this is an expense most firms want to avoid at all costs. 

Overall decrease in positive patient outcomes

If the patient is not receiving high quality care due to factors such as understaffed facilities, burnt out nurses, or patient-to-nurse ratios being unmanageable, the positive outcomes will surely decrease.

Is Nurse Turnover Improving?

As of January 2021, the previously mentioned Nursing Solutions Inc. report determines that nurse turnover rates were far from seeing improvement. 

For example, it was reported that although the national average for overall RN turnover is 18.7%, that step down, behavioral health, emergency, and telemetry RNs exceed this average from .6 to almost 6%. 

On top of this, out of all the advanced practice and allied health professions, RNs have the third highest turnover rates under patient care technicians (PCTs) and certified nursing assistants (CNAs).  

So, to put this lightly, no, our national nurse turnover is not improving.

What Can We Do About This?

Burnout is a major issue that so many nurses in the profession are facing.  

In the study, “Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Nurse Burnout in the US,” it was determined that 31.5% of the nurses reported leaving their jobs due to burnout.

In order to decrease nurse turnover, we must address, advocate for, and reduce burnout.  

Nursing managers and healthcare administrators should honor their hard-working, dedicated, and loyal nurses for all they do for the profession.  

I don’t mean giving them a pizza party, a pat on the back, or putting a “Heroes work here” sign outside.  

Nurses do not join this industry for the recognition or reward, but their voices must be heard and their tireless work should be appreciated. 

As we mentioned in our “The Need to Replace Sign-on Bonuses with Retention Bonuses for Nurses” blog, retention bonuses are a great initiative to improve burnout and decrease turnover; this is just one of the many ways administrators can thank their nursing staff. 

Of course, we all know that money cannot repair all damages and should not be the only means to improve nurse turnover. 

We must band together to determine additional solutions that address this constant revolving door of high turnover, as it is significantly worsening the nursing shortage, negatively impacting the delivery of quality patient care, and increasing the burnout rate of our currently working nurses. 

Let’s make a change.  

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