Both at Østfold Hospital and other hospitals, there are major challenges due to high staff turnover.
“We have to do what we can to keep the nurses. Next, we need to know what motivates them to stay, says clinic manager Volker Solyga at the medical clinic.
The medical clinic is currently working on a comprehensive project aimed at retaining and developing nurses in hospital wards.
– What are the reasons why people quit? And what do you have to do to stay? Only by knowing this can we put in place appropriate measures, says Inger-Lise Rud Foss, who is leading the 'Nurse Retention and Development in Hospital Wards' project.
Within 12 months, 74 nurses left
As part of the project, all nurses who resigned from work in hospital wards between September 2021 and September 2022 were contacted. In total, 12 nurses left within 74 months. The main reason nurses leave hospital areas is because they have too much work to do.
“But we were surprised that half of the nurses who left us are still in the hospital in other wards. We see that our employees are attractive to other branches, says Foss.
64 percent of nurses who left hospital areas left before their third year of employment.
We need a lot of good expertise
To gain insight into what motivates nurses to stay in hospital, the project also interviewed nurses and ward managers who still work in hospital wards.
“We see that how long nurses are employed somewhere matters a lot to what motivates them to stay. We must be able to retain new employees, but we must also take care of those who have been employed for a long time. We have a lot of very sick patients and we need a lot of good expertise, he says.
Willingness to improve own competences
The wishes and needs of nurses are different, but most of them concern the desire to improve their own competences. There are also newly qualified nurses who want to learn from experienced ones, or there are experienced nurses who want professional challenges.
– We hear that nurses who have been in one place for a long time spend a lot of time on training. This means that they have little time left for their own development and perfecting their skills, which is a waste, says the project manager.
The project will run until summer 2024
"It's important that we come up with exactly the right measures together," says Foss.
The medical clinic is a large part of Kalnes Hospital. As of today, 284 permanent staff nurses and substitute nurses are employed in hospital wards.
– We hope that the actions taken as part of the project will cause nurses to stay in XNUMX-hour zones. It is important that we manage to retain new employees and find good solutions so that our experienced nurses do not leave - says the manager of the clinic.
The project team consists of a project manager, nurses and career development advisors from various XNUMX/XNUMX areas, trade union representatives, section managers, an HR advisor and a clinic advisor.
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Source: sykehuset-ostfold
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