3 Nurse Retention Strategies to Boost Morale and Fight Burnout

When nurses turnover, hospitals can experience a slew of negative effects, including a decline in patient care, higher overtime costs, diminished team morale, and increased levels of burnout.

With the ongoing nurse shortage driving nurse turnover rates up and morale down, it’s critical that healthcare organizations take steps now to retain their nurses.

Insight Global is a top-ranked healthcare staffing agency. We’ve hired thousands of nurses for healthcare organizations—and helped them retain their staff long-term with strategic workforce solutions.

Keep reading to discover why nurse turnover rates are at an all-time high, along with our top three nurse retention strategies to increase job satisfaction!

Why Is There a Nurse Shortage?

According to data reported by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, there are multiple factors contributing to the nurse shortage in the U.S. Increased demand for healthcare, an aging nurse workforce, a lack of educational resources, and high levels of burnout and stress are just some of the reasons.

Let’s look at some of these reasons in more depth.

Retirement

Nurses are leaving the workforce at unprecedented rates, which is creating a significant gap in the healthcare system.

It’s projected that over 100,000 registered nurses (RNs) left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.
610,388 RNs expressed an “intent to leave” the workforce by 2027 due to high stress and burnout.

On top of this, there aren’t enough new nurses entering the field to replace those who are retiring.

Education

As we mentioned in the previous section, fewer people are entering the nursing profession. One reason is a lack of faculty and other resources in nursing schools.

In 2023, U.S. nursing schools had to turn away over 65,000 qualified applicants from bachelor’s and graduate programs due to insufficient faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, and budget limitations.

As fewer workers enter the profession, it becomes even more critical for hospitals and healthcare organizations to implement effective nurse retention strategies to maintain their current workforce.

Burnout and Stress

Many RNs have recently retired or are approaching retirement age, but it’s not just retiring nurses who are leaving the field—it’s nurses of all ages. In fact, 188,962 RNs under the age of 40 reported intentions to leave the field due to high levels of stress and burnout.

Some burnout is expected in nursing since it’s generally considered a high-stress job. However, since COVID-19 (and even before), it’s become commonplace for nurses to work in understaffed environments. This means they’re caring for more patients than is ideal for one nurse, working longer hours, and generally experiencing increased stress at work, all of which is contributing to the rising burnout rate.

This has prompted many nurses to seek new opportunities or leave the profession altogether.

Our Top 3 Nurse Retention Strategies

Achieving 100% nurse retention isn’t the goal—people retire, relocate, and change careers. However, organizations can take steps to care for their nursing staff, minimizing burnout and reducing turnover for preventable reasons.

Studies show that hospitals known for high-quality nursing care, high job satisfaction, and low nurse turnover all share a few common practices, such as:

Increasing the number of nurses on staff
Supporting continued education for nurses
Providing strong nurse manager support

Let’s look at more ways to achieve each of these.

Augment Your Nurse Staff

One of the most effective ways to retain nurses is by ensuring their workloads remain manageable, which often requires hiring more nurses to maintain an appropriate nurse-to-patient ratio.

If increasing full-time staff isn’t an option, there are alternative solutions. Travel nurses can help, but they’re more expensive and offer only temporary relief for staffing shortages.

Hiring international nurses is a long-term, cost-effective solution that can ease the workload of your full-time staff, though it presents its own challenges, like finding and hiring international talent, managing visa services, and providing training.

To address these challenges, Insight Global has developed a comprehensive education and deployment pipeline that helps healthcare organizations tap into the international nurse talent pool.

We help organizations across the U.S.:

Find, vet, and hire qualified nurses from countries with a surplus of nursing graduates
Train them to work within your facility’s standards, including job orientation and culture training
Provide visa sponsorship and assist with immigration requirements
Help them settle into their new community with transportation and housing assistance
And more

Provide Training and Development Opportunities

Nurses who feel valued and supported in their professional growth are more likely to stay with an organization. This is why investing in robust training and development opportunities is a great nurse retention strategy.

Here are some strategies to consider:

Advancement opportunities: Offer flexible scheduling, financial incentives, or accommodations to help nurses pursue specialty certifications in areas like critical care, wound care, or pediatrics. Support advanced credentials like ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) or PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support) deepen clinical skills.
Cross-training and collaboration: Provide opportunities for nurses to rotate through different departments and work with interdisciplinary teams to enhance their skills and understanding of various healthcare settings.
Leadership development: Invest in leadership training and mentorship programs to prepare nurses for management roles and career advancement.
Professional networking: Make it easy for nurses to join professional organizations and attend networking events.

Recognize and Reward Your Nurse Staff

Finally, outside of alleviating your nurses’ workload and offering them help in developing themselves, recognizing and rewarding your nurse staff for their hard work can make a world of difference in making them feel appreciated and, ultimately, retaining them long-term.

Small gestures like customized birthday gifts, team outings, and a simple card to appreciate high performance can play a role in boosting team morale. However, one of the best ways to retain your nurses is to continuously provide them with support, offer feedback, and maintain an open-door policy so they can come to you with personal and work-related stressors.

Retain Nurses by Creating a Positive Work Environment

Coming up with strong nurse retention strategies is all about creating a supportive and sustainable work environment where nurses can thrive. By augmenting your existing staff, investing in training and development opportunities, and providing strong support for your nurses year-round, you can significantly reduce your nurse turnover rate and enhance their job satisfaction.

Reach out to Insight Global today to build—and retain—a superior nursing workforce.