A human capital approach to ICU nurse retention

Nursing staff turnover is a critical personnel problem for nursing administrators and top hospital management. High turnover rates degrade the quality of patient care. They are economically dysfunctional when they reduce the capacity of hospital units; the facility loses revenues which can in turn exacerbate retention problems. Good management practice requires that nursing staff turnover be closely and routinely monitored with indices reporting both personnel numbers and staff experience status. The author describes an approach to the prevention of dysfunctional turnover levels by the establishment of retention objectives funded in the hospital budget.