Abstract

With the most recent pandemic, nurses have been overworked, overwhelmed, and understaffed at dangerous levels. Nurses are leaving full time employment at this facility in droves to seek better wages through traveling. In turn, our patient outcomes have taken a large hit, with an increase in falls, pressure ulcers, and catheter-acquired urinary tract infections, to name a few. This is costly for the hospital, not to mention the damper it puts on the hospital’s vision and goals. With the implementation of a nursing incentive program, the hospital could cut overall spending in half within 2 years with an investment of $2 million dollars. The evidence suggests that retention could increase by 50%, increasing hospital efficiency and profits.

The nursing incentive program includes an increase in baseline pay rate, transparent communication between administration and employees, and the implementation of a career ladder to assist staff in growing their career at our facility. The hospital is currently paying agency nurses a large sum of money to keep staff levels at minimum. If the hospital increases base pay for its own nurses, they are more likely to stay employed full time and recruit other nurses to join the organization. The system does a wonderful job with communication, but transparency from administration is necessary. The career ladder would offer nurses an opportunity to research evidence-based information and submit works for the hospital, improve their education level and possibility for promotion, and increase their pay rate.

Date of publication

Summer 8-6-2023

Document Type

MSN Capstone Project

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/4277

Degree

Masters of Nursing Administration

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