Study: Why nurses stay, why they leave

Editor's Note

This study by nurse researchers at Pennsylvania-based Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, and Waynesburg University, finds how a stay interview affords nurse leaders a way to find out why nurses stay or leave.

After implementing a tool kit, nurse leaders conducted 75 stay interviews with cardiothoracic telemetry and cardiothoracic surgical ICU nurses.

The nurses reported that:

• Unit culture, team/peers, and scheduling were important in their decisions to stay
• Salary, growth/development, and traveling opportunities were important in their reasons to leave.

The findings support the development of targeted retention strategies, the authors say.