Can Better Leadership Reduce Nursing Home Staff Turnover?

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology
• Nursing Home Administration

Background:

• Staff turnover in nursing homes is a persistent challenge impacting care quality and operational costs.
• Leadership support for worker safety, health, and well-being is a potential, yet understudied, factor influencing retention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if leadership commitment to worker well-being predicts nursing home staff turnover.
• To control for facility-level characteristics and other confounding variables in this relationship.

Main Methods:

• Utilized administrative payroll data for facility-level turnover and survey data for leadership commitment.
• Employed multivariable ordinary least squares regression analysis on a sample of 495 nursing homes across three states.
• Controlled for variables including bed count, ownership, resident demographics, and nurse staffing levels.

Main Results:

• Nursing homes with higher leadership commitment to worker well-being showed lower staff turnover rates.
• This association remained significant after controlling for other relevant factors, though with some attenuation.

Conclusions:

• Strong leadership commitment to worker safety, health, and well-being is associated with reduced nursing staff turnover.
• Investing in leadership initiatives that prioritize employee well-being may be an effective strategy for nursing homes to improve staff retention.