Recruiting and retaining nurses

In your opinion, what are the best ways an employer can recruit and
retain nurses (Ex, pay, flexible scheduling, recognition etc)?
Is this a homework question, or are you currently sitting on a R&R committee?

Sounds an awful lot like homework to me.

haha, nope not homework....The hospital where I work has an awful time retaining nurses. They put no effort into accomadating employee requests for 12 hour shifts...I was hoping if I could show them how important flexible scheduling was they may consider it.

I love 12 hr shifts.Easy recipe for retaining nurses- pay them well, treat them well, give them what they need to do to do their jobs well.Seems easy enough, but hardly any employers do these things.

There are real well-researched articles in the literature re various R & R approaches. And it would carry more weight for professional review that an anonymous web site.

Flexible scheduling is nice but I think one of the biggest factors for retaining nurses is having a set nurse patient ratio that's recommended and sticking to it. Unsafe nursing practices will make nurses run faster than anything. Seriously, do you really work at this place? How can you not know what the issues are? Just do an anonymous survey of your staff/floors and you'll get your answers real quick!

Quote from Blue_MoonFlexible scheduling is nice but I think one of the biggest factors for retaining nurses is having a set nurse patient ratio that's recommended and sticking to it. Unsafe nursing practices will make nurses run faster than anything. Seriously, do you really work at this place? How can you not know what the issues are? Just do an anonymous survey of your staff/floors and you'll get your answers real quick!

Geez, I thought this was a judge free zone! haha, tough crowd! I just started using this site, and I didn't realize how suspicious (aka rude) people are.....I didn't think this topic would spark any sort of negativity?! I already read articles and emailed them to my manager, my entire unit is requesting 12 hour shifts (management keeps saying no). And, yes, I seriously work there. That is how I do know thie issues, which would be insufficient staffing, leading to nurses getting injured by violent patients. (oh, before you attack me on that statement, I work in Mental Health). It is frustrating because it seems so simple, but management does not listen.....

you shouldn't generalize "we all".

Sorry not trying to be rude but just get annoyed with questions like this because if you work as a nurse you already know what the issues are and the solution which you just said (finally) you are aware of so I'm not sure what you're wanting from this board. Management is not going to care what a few random nurses that don't even work there think esp if they already don't listen to those that do work there. Even with 12 hr shifts there can be insufficient staffing.

Higher pay.

Pretty much what Blue said....if the people that work there don't have enough sway to clue administration in to what would be needed to retain quality staff, it hardly seems realistic to think that this administration would perk up and pay keen attention to what WE have to say...right?It also seems that whatever is keeping your facility from retaining nurses is well-known to your administration; management does tend to live in Ivory Towers, it's true, BUT they aren't as clueless as you probably think. They KNOW....they just don't CARE.Nurses can be replaced without much difficulty, so what is the real incentive on the part of your management to try to retain the ones already there? Keeping costs down? Well.....that used to be true, until the overabundance of nurses has led to being able to replace us at a lower annual cost than it would be to retain someone who has been earning higher pay and potentially costing more in benefits (PTO, for example).