NURS9126: Leadership in Health Studies - Effect of Leadership on Staff Nurse Retention - Nursing Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Introduction

This article will talk about the various leadership styles, in the healthcare and nursing setting and the effects it will have on staff retention, especially nurses. When we look at nurses and their supply, we find that there exists an inequality in the supply and demand where the supply is less and the demand is more. When the majority of nurses who are practicing currently are above the age of 50, the replacement factor for nurses showed that there will be an increase in the number of people needing healthcare in comparison to the supply of nurses required as the primary healthcare giver (Cottingham et al., 2011).The nursing turnover rates, were reviewed in 25 articles that were published between 1990 and 2010, and the rates ranged from 9.49% to 250% (Hughes, 2017). It was reported that there were increasing nursing turnover rates as we move ahead. The highest turnover rates per nurse were actually reported from Australia. A major amount of the costs of turnover were contributed by the temporary replacements of nurses who left their positions. As the cost of turnover and its rate increases, more and more focus is increasing on improving the retention of staff and nurses to prevent these overhead costs. A positive leadership style and positive work environment will help in increasing nurse retention and add more stability to the environment of work in the hospital (Hughes, 2017). Therefore, there is a need to propose leadership styles and strategies to help increase their retention. 

Background

The healthcare sector is undergoing exponential changes currently and growing by leaps and bounds. It is becoming more complicated, as more and more commercial hospitals have emerged with increase in disease burden and chronically ill population, especially the older population when we look at it in the context of Australia. This has led to an increase in demand and a reduction in available beds and more chaos in the hospitals (Asamani et al., 2016). It has led to changes being incorporated at the level of the professional care being provided to the patients and the quality of care as well. More professional and commercialised models of provision of healthcare are coming up where more managerial roles and more financial efficiency are being focused upon (Cummings et al., 2018). 

A more business model kind of approach is being propagated in return of more professional and increased quality of care being provided to the patients leading to increased stress at work and decreased retention of nurses. Retention of nurses becomes an important point to look at from the point of view of a financial standpoint as well as from the view of nursing care quality. Some of the reasons that have been identified by nurses for leaving their jobs and positions are related to staffing concerns (Hughes, 2017).  A theoretical model affecting the retention of staff nurses is composed of factors like manager, nurse characteristics, organization and work. The interaction of these factors has been suggested to determine the clinical nurses’ intention to stay. The interaction especially the managerial characteristics portrayed by the nurse leaders and the leadership styles tend to play a significant role on staff retention (Cowden & Cummings, 2012). Because of the importance of nursing as a primary care point for patients, and the challenges in the profession, important, significant and inspirational models and leaders are required to help develop future leaders and improve staff outcomes and retention. There is a discussion around which leadership style or a combination of which styles should the nurses in managerial and leadership roles focus upon to help in the over-all wellbeing of their establishment and the staff nurses as well (Scully, 2015). 

Leadership styles and strategies

The various styles of leadership exhibited by the managerial nurses are responsible for the retention of nurses after they are recruited. It helps them decide whether they want to stay on their current post or not, their idea of seeking employment elsewhere, changing their job, seeking a transfer or shifting completely outside the profession. A credible relationship between effective leadership styles and retention of the staff nurses in hospitals has been established by researchers (Duffield et al., 2011). It is found that a nurse leader should demonstrate integrity and help in the creation of an atmosphere of trust and loyalty. Trust and loyalty will help create a healthy work environment. Nurses when working in an environment where everyone is treated with due respect and gets appreciated for their contribution to patient care are more prone to stay. A leadership involving creation of enabling work environment and trust and loyalty will definitely help retention of staff and job satisfaction as well (Hughes, 2017). 

Effective leadership helps in mobilizing the nurses and the staff to improve their performance and keep them motivated to improve as well. A study found that the nursing leaders who demonstrated effective and efficient leadership helped increase the staff retention as well (Casida & Parker, 2011).

Staff retention

The retention of staff is the basics of any organisation; which is associated with a lot of factors especially the environment created by the leaders for work and the opportunities that are provided to them by the leaders while managing them effectively (Wong, 2015). A finding showed important correlation between the job satisfaction of the staff and their empowerment, also suggesting that more effective leadership leads to more retention of the staff (Al-Yami et al., 2018).  A significant relation between the effective and motivational leadership styles and the ability to retain staff has been associated with motivation received by the staff from their managers and leaders, which led to increased job satisfaction and staff retention as well (Boamah et al., 2018). 

Conclusion

The article highlights the importance of how leadership significantly impacts staff retention and helps improve their job satisfaction. Research available talks about how different leadership styles and strategies in nursing are most effective in improving the retention rates of the staff.  Also, discussed are the changing healthcare sector and how the demand and supply of nurses and other staff is becoming imbalanced with expected demands to increase in the coming times, it is important to improve the existing work environment so as to promote job satisfaction and retention in the existing staff and help improve recruitment of new staff as well. Better and improved leaders with exceptional leadership skills, are required to run the healthcare organizations to help improve and ensure better outcomes for the hospitals as well as the nurses. All types of effective and motivational leadership styles help in improving the work environment and ensure a workforce of nurses and staff who are motivated to work and are satisfied with their job.

This NURS9126: Nursing Assignment has been solved by our Nursing Experts at onlineassignmentbank. Our Assignment Writing Experts are efficient to provide a fresh solution to this question. We are serving more than 10000+ Students in Australia, UK & US by helping them to score HD in their academics. Our Experts are well trained to follow all marking rubrics & referencing style.