You are the administrator of a medium-sized hospital. The Director of Human Resources has been summoned to an executive team meeting in an effort determine why an unusual number of nursing staff leaving for other employment. During the discussions, the Director of Nursing provides her thoughts regarding why the nurses may be less productive and why some are departing. She states that the primary reason is salaries/benefits. A charge nurse thinks the reason might be working conditions, especially involving patient load in the various nursing units. Overall morale is low, which is adversely affecting productivity. This has also resulted in some patient quality outcomes discovered by the Continuous Quality Improvement team. During the discussion, the Senior Director of Admissions shares some experiences she had with a former employer--that the nursing staff tended to remain longer with the employer based on good working conditions, specifically in the area of learning new skills, obtaining additional certifications, licensure, and cross-training for other areas not usually assigned. She feels that these measures result in higher retention and patient quality outcomes. After the meeting, you meet with the Director of Nursing and Human Resources Director, who is also in charge of all training and development for the hospital. As the administrator, you consider developing a small group to explore the feasibility of providing more skills development and training to your current nursing staff. Before implementing this directive, consider the following:
1. How would you determine which skills, certifications, and licensure would be effective in retaining the current nurses?
2. Is there a direct correlation between additional skills and retention and motivation of the nurses?
3. How would you determine who would be provided the skills development? Are all skills for all nurses feasible?
4. How would you determine if additional compensation would be required for trained nurses?
5. How would you quantitatively determine the cost of this initiative?