55% of Nurse retention driven by relationships and work environment: Nurse Retention Report finds

HOUSTON - Sept. 21, 2023 - PRLog -- 55% of nurse retention driven by interpersonal relationships and working environment.

55% of nurse retention is driven by nurses' bonds with coworkers and familiarity with working environments, according to a new survey of 2,000 RNs from leading healthcare staffing RPO, Nurse Recruitment Experts (NRX).

With an ongoing shortage of nurses and many studies on staff leaving the profession, healthcare's workforce challenges are well-known.

"Smart leaders know investing in retention among their nursing staff is a high-return strategy to bolster their teams and the patient experience," said NRX founder and President Adam Chambers. "We analyzed 10,000 candidate profiles and surveyed 2,000 RNs to help providers develop superior nurse retention strategies.

The findings show distinct bright spots for provider organizations. 34% of respondees attributed their retention to interpersonal relationships with colleagues; a further 21% referenced familiarity with the workplace, patients, and wariness of "the grass being greener" if they moved.

Together, these results can be viewed as pointing toward the need for employers to encourage a more social, welcoming working culture, over throwing money at retention bonuses and pay hikes.

Interpersonal relationships

34% of respondents attributed their retention to interpersonal relationships with colleagues. At the same time, no respondents mentioned how their employer facilitated or promoted co-worker bonds. Encouragement of togetherness should be worked through nurse ambassadors and staff on the ground, rather than as a corporate mandate.

The Importance of 'Familiarity'

21% of nurses referenced familiarity with the workplace, patients, and wariness of "the grass being greener" if they moved.

The survey's (https://nurserecruitmentx.com/nurse-retention-report/) "familiarity" category challenges the commonly-held, 2-dimensional view of participation in company culture as subscription and interaction with an agreed set of values.

Secondary role of pay and benefits

While pay and benefits were mentioned by a portion of respondents, they played a secondary role in nurse retention, as evidenced by the lower percentages. Furthermore, retention bonuses, a commonly suggested solution, were mentioned by less than 2% of survey respondents.

"We know that competitive pay attracts nurses," said Jason McCarthy,  Chief Operating Officer of NRX. "Our results demonstrate that retention is a different story. Nurses want to feel wanted, at home, and part of a work family".

About Nurse Recruitment Experts

Since 2019, Nurse Recruitment Experts (https://nurserecruitmentx.com) (NRX) has sourced and hired 10,000s of RNs, LPNs, and CNAs for health systems across the US and Canada. Collectively, clients - spread across 37 states and provinces - are estimated to have saved over $80,000,000 through hiring direct staff.