Turnover of regulated nurses in long-term care facilities

To describe the relationship between nursing staff turnover in long-term care (LTC) homes and organisational factors consisting of leadership practices and behaviours, supervisory support, burnout, job satisfaction and work environment satisfaction.

The turnover of regulated nursing staff [Registered Nurses (RNs) and Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs)] in LTC facilities is a pervasive problem, but there is a scarcity of research examining this issue in Canada.

The study was conceptualized using a Stress Process model. Distinct surveys were distributed to administrators to measure organisational factors and to regulated nurses to measure personal and job-related sources of stress and workplace support. In total, 324 surveys were used in the linear regression analysis to examine factors associated with high turnover rates.

Higher leadership practice scores were associated with lower nursing turnover; a one score increase in leadership correlated with a 49% decrease in nursing turnover. A significant inverse relationship between leadership turnover and nurse turnover was found: the higher the administrator turnover the lower the nurse turnover rate.

Leadership practices and administrator turnover are significant in influencing regulated nurse turnover in LTC.

Long-term care facilities may want to focus on building good leadership and communication as an upstream method to minimize nurse turnover.