Factors associated with staff retention in the NHS acute sector

Abstract

Health Education England and NHS England/Improvement for helpful discussions throughout the course of the project, and the Policy Research Unit's patient and public involvement and advisory group for helpful comments on the emerging findings of this study and reading a near final version of the report. This subject clearly matters to patients, as one of our patient advisers noted: 'Security of staffing levels is obviously critical to maintaining a good service, but also in giving confidence to patients using the service. Nobody wants to feel that they might be on the receiving end of an under-resourced medical team.'The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the DHSC, or the ESRC. Factors associated with staff retention in the NHS acute sector  The Institute for Fiscal Studies, August 2022 Key findings1 Average monthly leaving rates differ substantially between NHS staff groups, but have remained stable over time. On average, 0.4% of consultants left the NHS acute sector each month between April 2012 and May 2021. The average leaving rate was 0.8% for nurses and midwives over the same period, and 1.2% for HCAs.

Retention of ethnic minority staff is critical to resolving the NHS workforce crisis

“…Staff from ethnic minority and international backgrounds are much more likely to experience racial harassment, which can cause poor physical and mental health 2021. It is important to find out whether NHS staff from ethnic minority groups are experiencing greater ill health and, if so, to address this, and also to find out whether they experience higher sickness absence, as this is a strong predictor of attrition 22…”

Safeguarding the retention of nurses: A systematic review on determinants of nurse's intentions to stay

“…Nursing workforce shortages have far‐reaching and cumulative impacts on patient ratios, staff dissatisfaction, occupational stress and burnout and staff retention to the ultimate detriment of patient safety and quality of care (Aiken & Fagin, 2018). What is lesser appreciated, is by what means employers can safeguard and protect nurses already working within our healthcare systems to stay (Kelly et al, 2022; Shembavnekar et al, 2022).…”

“…Buchan argues that workforce deficits within themselves perpetuate a cyclical chain of events, corroding nurses experience at work and thus negatively impacting retention. The consequences of working in physically and emotionally draining environments are likely to be only the tip of the iceberg, propositioning, a continuing aggregating threat to the sustainability of nursing populations (Kelly et al, 2022; Shembavnekar et al, 2022).…”

“…Much is known about the regressive lag indicators and corrosive factors that cause intention to leave, which in up to 80% of cases can result in actual leavers (Applebaum et al, 2010; Kagwe et al, 2019; Perry et al, 2018), and yet there is limited insight into the forward‐looking indicators of why nurses stay and the potential of the positive impact on turnover. For that reason, while ever these factors remain undefined nurse retention is not being approached from a solution‐focused perspective (Kelly et al, 2022; Theucksuban et al, 2022); a seemingly missed opportunity in the face of the reality of the brittle global nurse workforce position.…”

“…Nursing workforce shortages have far-reaching and cumulative impacts on patient ratios, staff dissatisfaction, occupational stress and burnout and staff retention to the ultimate detriment of patient safety and quality of care (Aiken & Fagin, 2018). What is lesser appreciated, is by what means employers can safeguard and protect nurses already working within our healthcare systems to stay (Kelly et al, 2022;Shembavnekar et al, 2022).Many compounding reasons for healthcare workforce shortages created a challenge pre-Covid-19 pandemic which has successively significantly exacerbated this existing global problem. The stark situational reality is that the demand for nurses is putting demand on nurses, by increasing workloads and pressures (Buchan et al, 2022).Buchan argues that workforce deficits within themselves perpetuate a cyclical chain of events, corroding nurses experience at work and…”