The Effects of Coaching on Nurse Turnover - Essay Example

"The Effects of Coaching on Nurse Turnover" is a great example of a paper on care.
This paper seeks to present a research proposal on the effect of coaching on nurse turnover. The paper will present the proposed study’s statement of research and research design.  

Statement of research

The shortage of personnel has been a ‘long-term’ problem in the nursing profession with no apparently identified solution. While some may have pointed to a lack of interest in the profession, the nursing profession remains one of the most admirable and competitive courses in academic institutions. This means that there are far more underlying factors to the nursing shortage than lack of trainees in the field or lack of interest in the profession. Based on reported research findings, more than 60 percent of newly registered nurses leave the profession by their second year in practice and some of the main reasons for quitting have been lack of managerial support for the nurses and unfavorable working conditions such as personnel strains. Senior nurses are also lost due to being worn out or loss of interest in the profession (Feldman, 2011).

This has cast doubts on the effectiveness of management’s role in orienting and coaching personnel, especially new recruits, into the work environment. As a result, personnel leaves the profession because they are not able to cope with the work environment. This research seeks to carry out an explorative review of nurses’ turnover.

Aim of the research

The aim of this research is to explore turnover rates in the profession and identify the relationship between nurses’ turnover rates and coaching. The research will rely on primary data and any available secondary data that relates to nurses' ratings on coaching and chances of mobility.

Research question

The study will seek to answer the question, “Is there a significant relationship between nurses’ turnover rate and coaching initiatives within course of duty?”

Hypothesis

The set of the hypothesis will therefore be

Null hypothesis:  There is no significant relationship between nurses’ mobility and coaching

Alternative hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between nurses’ mobility and coaching.

An understanding of the relationship between coaching and nurses' mobility will help in developing strategies towards retaining registered nurses in the profession. The wide scope of data collection through triangulation will on the other hand ensure the reliability of results and conclusion of the research.

The hypothesis is important because it will facilitate the evaluation of the research question to determine whether coaching that is offered to nurses has an impact on their probability of leaving the profession. The research issue, the relationship between nurses’ turnover and coaching is on the other hand important because it will help in evaluating coaching as a possible solution to nurse mobility and shortage. The research, therefore, has the potential of presenting a solution to the crisis in the nursing profession.

Research design

This section discusses the research approach and designs to be adopted. It defines the proposed approach together with its associated advantages and disadvantages. It also offers an overview of the design to be adopted and a comparison with alternative designs besides describing the procedure for the research study.

Research approach

The research will apply a quantitative approach in its methods. This is because the nature of data to be collected as well as the research question to be answered suits the quantitative approach. Quantitative research for example allows for the test of hypothesis besides evaluation of quantifiable variables.

The quantitative research approach has a number of advantages. It for example, when properly undertaken, guarantees the reliability of the results and hence conclusions. This is because of its application of statistical tools in analysis to express the true features of the collected data. The analysis in the quantitative approach is therefore free from manipulation based on the researcher’s attitudes and emotions. Another advantage of the quantitative research approach is that its results are inferential. This means that the results can be implied on the population. Based on sampling techniques that eliminate biases in selecting sample elements, the quantitative approach assumes a fair representation of the population. Consequently, its results are representative of the characteristics of the entire population. The approach’s major disadvantage however lies in its rigidity. All aspects of the approach are predetermined and allow little room for adjustments. Similarly, the quantitative research approach merely evaluates variables but does not develop solutions to the identified problems. Conclusions from the statistical analysis can however be used as a basis for ‘decision-making’ (Nykiel, 2007).

Design

The study intends to use ‘quasi-experimental design to generate a solution to the research question. The main reason for choosing the design is its compatibility with the scope of the study. While the study seeks to develop the relationship between coaching and nurse mobility rates, the design evaluates the relationship between a factor and its impacts. As a result, it is a suitable design for the study. The experimental design was considered but it has many implications that could not be met such as the need for a controlled experiment as well as the inability to blind participants in the research (Boswell and Cannon, 2011).

The main aim of the study is the determination of the existence of a significant relationship between coaching of nursing personnel and the turnover rate. In order to achieve this, the study intends to collect both primary and secondary data on participants’ perceptions of the two variables. While secondary data will be sought from existing publications, primary data will be obtained through designed questionnaires to be administered to sampled participants. The research will further use a randomized design in sampling to minimize the chances of biases for reliability. Similarly, triangulation of data will be developed through selecting different cohorts of respondents that will include trainees, trainers, and different subsets of registered nurses. Data in the two variables will be collected on a numeric scale with coaching being measured in terms of effectiveness and mobility being measured in terms of probability. The results will then be analyzed to evaluate the existence of a relationship to answer the research question. Based on the result, the study will recommend necessary measures towards finding a solution for the highly reported turnover rates.