Exploratory study of registered nurses’ turnover at a Private Medical Center in Lebanon

Abstract

Introduction AcIntroduction: According to WHO 2017 report, the density of nurses and midwives is projected to fall short from 9 million to 7.6 million by 2030. This shortage will worsen in African and Eastern Mediterranean Regions. Many factors are contributing to the shortage in nurses, among which is high nurse turnover rate. High nurse turnover rate is caused by several factors such as low job satisfaction, burnout, and the intent to leave the workplace or the nursing profession. This project aims at exploring nurses’ personal perceptions of turnover and retention at Bellevue Medical Center (BMC). More specifically, this project highlights 1) nurses’ perspectives about the reasons behind high nurse turnover at BMC; and 2) nurses’ personal views about effective strategies they believe could be applied or need to be applied by BMC administration to reduce nurse turnover at the organization. Methods: This project is a qualitative research. We used in-depth interviews with staff nurses in 3 medical-surgical units at BMC. Purposive sampling was used to identify interviewees. The sample included RNs, both men and women between the ages of 23 and 55, having more than one year of experience. Data was collected and transcribed. Data analysis was performed using MAXQDA software. Themes and categories were extracted from the transcripts as findings of the study. Results: Two major themes emerged from the interviews: theme I, Nurses expressed their views about the scope of the turnover problem at a national level and the related factors associated with it; theme II, Nurses shared their perspectives of the various retention strategies used at the institutional level. Nurses expressed that the problem is widespread and has been seriously impeding the quality of health sector services. A bad image of the profession and its prospects is creating major shifts in terms of the number of students applying to nursing schools, number of years nurses remain in their jobs, and maintaining-retaining experienced s