Differing Roles of Nursing Leaders and Nursing Managers in Solving Nursing Turnovers

Nursing leaders and nursing managers play different roles within healthcare settings and, therefore, apply different approaches when solving the challenge of nurse turnovers. Nursing leaders provide leadership within the healthcare organization. They provide guidance, support, and motivation to nurses to ensure that quality care is provided and that nurses understand their accountability for the patient’s health and safety. Nurse Managers are tasked with ensuring that nurses in practice adhere to the required standards of care, laws, and nursing regulations. They, therefore, tend to be authoritative in carrying out their managerial roles.

Nursing managers apply evidence-based practices such as financial compensations, allowing nurse autonomy, developing recognition and rewards systems, use of communication to retain specialized nurses and reduce turnover and turnover intentions (Brook et al., 2019). On the other hand, nurse leaders solve nursing turnover issues by applying leadership styles and skills that create a work environment that enables inter-professional collaborations, motivation, and job satisfaction. Nursing leaders tend to be more successful in retaining nurses than nursing managers. This difference can be explained by applying the Transformational Leadership Theory in relating leadership to positive employee and work outcomes.

Transformational Leadership Theory holds the view that leaders should be at the forefront of promoting individual improvement and achievement (Hansbrough & Schyns, 2018). While managers assume a position of authority, transformational leaders connect with their subjects at a personal level to promote work motivation and morale. Through transformational leadership, nurses are able to enhance nursing citizenship behaviors, create a collective identity among diverse healthcare professional teams, and gain more ownership of the responsibilities of the nurses’ care settings. The results achieved through a transformational leadership style are much better in reducing nurse turnover rates than assuming a managerial position of authority.

Other Initiatives to Ensure Professionalism and Reduce Nurse Turnover

Both nurse leaders and managers have a role in ensuring professionalism and reducing nurse turnover across the healthcare systems. The roles of nursing leaders and nursing managers can be interlinked to create a work environment that helps meet the needs of the nurses. Other initiatives that nursing managers and leaders can employ to reduce nurse turnovers and professionalism in nursing practice can include the provision of coaching services to improve the skills of nurses to provide quality and safer care services. Other approaches that can improve nurse job satisfaction levels and reduce turnover rates and intentions in the nursing field include the elimination of mandatory working overtime, improvement in the safety of the workplace, development of platforms for shared governance, and programs that improve the transition of nurses from class to practice. Nurse leaders and managers also need to promote respectful collaboration and reduce cases of bullying in the workplace.

Participative Style of Leadership in Solving Nursing Turnover

The participative leadership style is the most suitable approach that nurse leaders and managers can adopt to reduce and solve the challenge of nurse turnover. The Participative leadership style promotes inclusiveness and ensures that all members of a team or an organization work in unison and all member inputs are considered during decision-making (Busse & Regenberg, 2019). The participative style of leadership creates an environment suitable for shared governance. When applied in nursing, the participative style of leadership can help identify and recognize the needs of the nurses and develop a satisfying work-life balance. The shared governance created by participative leadership gives nurses a platform to share their ideas on work plans and other roles and responsibilities within the care settings. It also redefines collaborations within the workplace and recognition of the nurses’ input during such collaborations. Therefore, the participative leadership style is ideal for creating a work environment that promotes job satisfaction and work commitments and reduces turnovers and turnover intentions.

References

Brook, J., Aitken, L., Webb, R., MacLaren, J., & Salmon, D. (2019). Characteristics of successful interventions to reduce turnover and increase retention of early career nurses: A systematic review. International journal of nursing studies, 91, 47-59.