Abstract

Background: Nurses are essential to health systems worldwide. However, nurses are leaving the profession at alarming rates, and those who remain often do not stay in their current positions long. Some key reasons nurses cite for this include unsupportive or unsafe work environments, inadequate staffing, insufficient compensation, and feeling undervalued. While creating new nurses is vital, retaining the current global nurse workforce is equally important for supporting equitable, high-quality healthcare.

Methods: As part of Sigma's Global Advocacy Academy, four nurse leaders from the United States, Austria, and The Netherlands discussed the challenges facing the nursing profession, identified potential solutions, and developed an advocacy plan for nurse retention from a global perspective.

Results: The concept of nurse retention was evaluated using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the SDG Impact Assessment tool. Five nurse retention strategies were identified: 1) Decisional Involvement and Shared Decisional Power; 2) Supportive, Safe Work Environments with Sufficient Resources and Personnel; 3) Nurse Professional Development, Education, and Career Growth; 4) Social, Health, and Economic Support; and 5) Presenting Nurses to the Public. For the Global Advocacy Academy, we focused on Strategy Five, presenting nurses to the public, as an upstream approach to support nurse retention. Conclusion: Supporting nurse retention at local, regional, and global levels is crucial to combat the ongoing nursing shortage. Advocates should identify the retention strategies they are passionate about, choose their focus level, and collaborate with supporters to achieve specific goals.

Description

The authors were academy scholars in the Sigma Virtual Mini Academy: Global Advocacy.

Author Details

Marissa Bartmess, PhD, RN is an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina's College of Nursing. She is a member of STTI's Alpha Xi Chapter and serves as a Governance Committee member for her chapter. In addition to her PhD in Nursing, she holds graduate certificates in Health Policy and Nursing Education. Her research focuses on nurse staffing, professional well-being, and nurse workforce policy, and is guided by her commitment to equitable, high-quality nursing care for all. Contact information: marissa.bartmess@gmail.com or bartmesm@mailbox.sc.edu Harmen Hummel, BSN, RN is a lecturer in Nursing Science at HAN University of Applied Sciences. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Nursing from Hogeschool Utrecht. His professional journey includes faculty and nursing roles at Hogeschool Utrecht, UMC-Utrecht, ROC Zadkine, and Avans University. His research focuses on Nursing Workforce Retention and leadership. He currently holds a faculty position at HAN University of Applied Sciences. Maria Barros, ANP-C, PMHNP-BC immigrated to the United States at age 5. She has always wanted to be a nurse and feels honored to be part of this great profession. She has undergraduate degrees in both Psychology and Nursing. She obtained a graduate degree in adult primary care nursing in 2012, later returning to obtain a post-graduate certificate in psychiatric mental health nursing in 2023. In addition to volunteering in her local community Maria has participated in several global health trips to Cape Verde. Panagiota Tsikala, RN, Bsc, FISQua is a registered nurse with more than 20 years of experience, 13 of which in Renal Care, in 4 European countries. She is also a master student in healthcare management and writing her master thesis. Panagiota is an active member of national and international nursing associations. She is a fellow of ISQUA learning about healthcare quality and patient safety. Panagiota is a member of Austrian and Greek national teams of the European campaign "Fighting Fatigue Together. "

Sigma Membership

Alpha Xi

Lead Author Affiliation

University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Type

Presentation

Format Type

Text-based Document, Video Recording

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Nurse Retention, Workforce, Advocacy, Sustainable

Conference Name

Sigma Virtual Mini Academy: Global Advocacy

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Virtual Event

Conference Year

2024

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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Review Type

Faculty/Mentor Approved: Sigma Academy Participant Presentation

Acquisition

Self-submission

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Sustaining nurses to sustain communities: Nurse retention with a global perspective

Virtual Event

Background: Nurses are essential to health systems worldwide. However, nurses are leaving the profession at alarming rates, and those who remain often do not stay in their current positions long. Some key reasons nurses cite for this include unsupportive or unsafe work environments, inadequate staffing, insufficient compensation, and feeling undervalued. While creating new nurses is vital, retaining the current global nurse workforce is equally important for supporting equitable, high-quality healthcare.

Methods: As part of Sigma's Global Advocacy Academy, four nurse leaders from the United States, Austria, and The Netherlands discussed the challenges facing the nursing profession, identified potential solutions, and developed an advocacy plan for nurse retention from a global perspective.

Results: The concept of nurse retention was evaluated using the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the SDG Impact Assessment tool. Five nurse retention strategies were identified: 1) Decisional Involvement and Shared Decisional Power; 2) Supportive, Safe Work Environments with Sufficient Resources and Personnel; 3) Nurse Professional Development, Education, and Career Growth; 4) Social, Health, and Economic Support; and 5) Presenting Nurses to the Public. For the Global Advocacy Academy, we focused on Strategy Five, presenting nurses to the public, as an upstream approach to support nurse retention. Conclusion: Supporting nurse retention at local, regional, and global levels is crucial to combat the ongoing nursing shortage. Advocates should identify the retention strategies they are passionate about, choose their focus level, and collaborate with supporters to achieve specific goals.