Study Shows Employee Benefits Helps Retain Staff at Nursing Homes
We’ve been hearing about nursing shortages for some time now. But the facts are that the median age of nurses is 46 and more than 50% of the workforce is close to retirement. And with vast increases in the number of people in America’s population over 65, there will be many more medical and health needs and the need for more nurses. Nowhere is this truer than in nursing homes, where retaining nurses can be challenging.
There are steps a nursing home can take to attract and improve the rates of registered nurses include offering career-advancement opportunities, developing long-tenured leaders, and rewarding attendance, in addition to providing employee benefits such as health insurance and retirement benefits. This is according to an analysis done by Duke University Medical Center of a national nursing home survey.
The findings from the analysis showed that many nurses within a nursing home were satisfied with their work but not with their work environment. Overall, the 1,174 participating nursing homes had moderate registered nursing retention with more than 50% of nurses retained for more than one year. Fifty percent or fewer registered nurses employed for more than one year and 80% or more nurses employed for more than one year denoted low and high registered nurse retention, respectively. Those that implemented employee-retention with paid tuition fees and fees and career-promotion opportunities were more common among moderate- and high-retention than low-retention nursing homes, at 63.6% and 66.0% versus 54.2%, and 79.2% and 77.6% versus 70.9%, respectively.
Furthermore, nursing homes that provide registered nurses with retirement benefits, paid sick days, available parenteral nutrition services and other key employee benefits were more likely to fall into the moderate retention group.
Caitlin-Morgan specializes in the insurance needs of nursing home & assisted living facilities. Give us a call at 877.226.1027.
Source: Medical Research News