Incentivizing Excellence: Strategies for Enhancing Nurse Engagement Through Leadership

Nurse leaders have realized decreased levels of staff engagement due to a lack of diverse rewards and recognition across all generations of nursing. In 2023, the Staff Engagement survey decreased from 85% engagement to 78% at a Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in central Texas's quaternary academic teaching hospital. Managers used ineffective incentives to help motivate staff, and the same top performers were burdened with all the work. The developed Leader Toolkit focused on improving multigenerational staff engagement and morale. Utilizing key Incentives based on work-life balance, improved scheduling, self-care, and improvements to their work environment, staff morale increased, engagement in unit and system initiatives improved, and staff well-being across all generations of nursing increased. The 2024 People Survey had 79% completion of the survey within the 1st 24 hours of opening; engagement increased to 84%, and staff well-being increased to 84.3%. The Leader Toolkit successfully incentivized and motivated the new culture of nursing.