The economic case for meeting employees' needs

The purpose of this article was to demonstrate that health care organisations stand to benefit financially by accommodating the needs of nursing staff.

Nurse turnover results in major financial losses in health care, and inadequate staffing resulting from turnover negatively affects patient outcomes, which further drives up health care costs. Strategies to limit nurse turnover are available and crucial in the quest for health care sustainability.

Economic theory was presented to underpin evidence from business, education, and health disciplines literature, and from case studies of industry best practices in employee retention. This multidisciplinary analysis was applied to the retention of nurses in health care organisations.

Significant reductions in nurse turnover lead to considerable financial benefit to employers. Reductions can be achieved when employers accommodate the needs of their staff. Further investigation of specific incentive models, and the transferability of those models, is needed. Incentive programmes may be matched to specific nurse needs to decrease turnover.

Nursing leaders have the opportunity to discover the unique need of their workforces and invest in incentive programmes to fulfil those needs.