Nurses employed in nonnursing fields. Is nursing losing its best and brightest?

Any solution to the imbalance between nurse supply and demand must incorporate at least three related strategies: recruitment of students, redesign of the staff nurse's role, and implementation of known retention promoters. The authors discuss a retention study and examine the characteristics of and disincentives for nurses who have chosen to leave nursing in pursuit of another career. This examination demonstrates how retention is intricately tied to redesign of the staff nurse role and how retention initiatives and staff nurse role redesign may serve to enhance recruitment into the profession.