Nurse Aide Retention in Nursing Homes.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Workforce Studies
• Quality Improvement in Healthcare

Background:

• Nurse aide retention is a critical factor influencing the quality of care in nursing facilities.
• Understanding the relationship between staff retention and quality indicators is essential for effective healthcare management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the association between nurse aide retention and three key quality indicators in nursing facilities.
• To investigate the impact of nurse aide retention on deficiency citation rates.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 3,550 nursing facilities, including survey responses and government databases (2016).
• Measured nurse aide retention at 1, 2, and 3 years of employment.
• Employed negative binomial regression analyses to assess associations between retention and deficiency citations (all, quality of care, J, K, L).

Main Results:

• Nurse aide retention rates were 53.2% (1-year), 41.4% (2-year), and 36.1% (3-year).
• Lower nurse aide retention was significantly associated with poorer performance on all three examined quality indicators.

Conclusions:

• Nurse aide retention is a significant workforce challenge with a direct impact on nursing facility quality.
• Findings suggest that improving nurse aide retention is a relevant strategy for enhancing quality of care and policy development.