Report: Consistent, purposeful manager-team engagement reduces RN turnover

Editor's Note

Ensuring regular recognition and check-ins with team members is an effective strategy for nurse leaders hoping to reduce staff turnover, according to a press release published April 3 by the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL).

Presented earlier this month at AONL’s annual conference, the inaugural edition of the Quantifying Nurse Manager Impact report delivers insights on the impact of nurse managers on health system financial outcomes and key factors that can impede this impact. It is based on a dataset from software firm Laudio spanning more than 50 acute care hospitals, hundreds of ambulatory sites, more than 8,000 health system managers, and more than 100,000 health system employees.

Among other findings, the report reveals that nurse managers who have consistent, purposeful interactions with staff have statistically significant lower registered nurse (RN) turnover. In a team with average turnover, one purposeful interaction per month per RN drives a seven-percentage point improvement in the team’s overall annual RN turnover rate.

The report also identifies span of control as a key factor that can hinder a nurse manager’s capacity for meaningful engagement. Larger span of control is generally associated with higher turnover as well as higher incremental and overall overtime use. Median span of control for inpatient nurse managers is 46 people, while those in the top quartile oversee at least 78 people.