Empowerment as a Nurse Retention Tool - Research Paper Example

A sense of empowerment, according to Kanter’s theoretical framework, provides nurses with access to information, support, opportunity, and resources. Based on Kanter’s theory of organizational empowerment, secondary literature and primary survey as a background, a policy has been developed for retaining higher number of nurses (Kanter, 1977). This model considered the opinion of respondents through primary survey and specific concepts of Kanter like negative work place behavior and impact of power and opportunity on retaining rate of nurses.

This policy would facilitate transform care at bed site (TCAB) through empowerment, which in turn would result in higher satisfaction at work where care quality may improve immensely and also leads to higher nurse retention. This would also lead to safe and reliable care, where a patient-centred approach may be utilized to lead to value-added care processes through empowerment, satisfaction, teamwork, and involvement.Staff retention has become major threat and concern for hospitals nationwide.

Retaining nurses once they enter the organization is significant as the cost of orienting a new nurse may exceed the cost of an annual salary; that is, cost to replace a registered nurse begins at $42,000 for a medical/surgical nurse and $64,000 for an intensive care unit nurse (Kerfoot, 2000). Along with the excessive financial cost of losing staff nurses, hospitals suffer long-term negative effects on the quality of patient care. It has been estimated that the shortage of nurses will rise to 800,000 by 2020 (Spetz & Given, 2003).

Multiple search studies have shown that job satisfaction is one of the key factors that determine nurses’ intent to stay or leave (Nedd, 2006; Lacey, Teasley, & Cox, 2009).Job satisfaction is often enhanced when organizational factors, such as opportunity, information, support, and resources are an inherent part of organizational functioning.