Mitigating Knowledge Loss: A Strategic Imperative for Nurse Leaders.

With the aging of the nursing workforce and expected retirement of large numbers of experienced nurses in the next decade, mitigating the impact that lost knowledge will have on organizational performance and patient outcomes is critical. The authors raise awareness of the problem, summarize observations procured from hospital nurse executive regarding approaches for knowledge transfer through workforce development, and pose proactive strategies for nurse leaders who can provide direction to offset the issue before it becomes a crisis.

Preserving Staffing Resources As a System: Nurses Leading Operations and Efficiency Initiatives.

Nurse leaders have struggled for generations with using the right staff in appropriate roles and numbers to optimally cover patient care services and yet preserve salary dollars when possible. The Baptist Health system identified opportunities to enhance communication across facilities and encouraged executives and department leaders to work together to achieve common goals of efficiency and quality. Baptist Health created an operations and efficiency council with representation from each of the seven hospitals in the system, as well as corporate leaders and support staff. Beginning in April 2014, the system began consistently exceeding productivity targets and effectively eliminated a $30 million dollar salary variance from the spring of 2013.

Predatory publishing: what nurse executives need to know.

Editors attending the 2014 meeting of the International Academy of Nursing Editors have coalesced to provide information to our readers regarding a recent trend in the publishing world, predatory publishing.

The influence of administrative leadership: an interview with Dr Karen S. Hill.

This department highlights nursing leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to patient care leadership and innovation in practice, policy, research, education, and theory. This interview profiles Karen Hill, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAAN, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer of Baptist Health in Lexington, Kentucky, and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nursing Administration.

Caring for nurses: hospital-based study groups for certification.

This article describes a hospital-based initiative that provides support for nurses who wish to become certified in a nursing specialty. Because certification becomes increasingly important to individual nurses and acute care organizations, opportunities to support nurses in this endeavor need to be developed. Through the efforts of the director of education and the support of nursing administration, study groups aimed toward assisting nurses to become certified have grown in number throughout this hospital.

Work satisfaction, intent to stay, desires of nurses, and financial knowledge among bedside and advanced practice nurses.

OBJECTIVE: To better understand factors that may contribute to retention of experienced nurses, a study examined differences and relationships among work satisfaction, intent to stay in the nursing profession, and financial knowledge of retirement consequences related to income between clinical bedside nurses (CBNs) and advanced practice nurses (APNs) and described the importance of 7 workforce desires of nurses. BACKGROUND: Overall, nurses are not informed regarding the financial implications of transitioning from the workforce into retirement. In addition, little is known about the workforce desires and intent to stay among experienced nurses. METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive, comparative design was used. Data were collected from a convenience sample (n = 176) of CBNs employed by a 371-bed, acute care, Magnet-designated hospital, who worked in telemetry and medical-surgical care, and APNs employed by the hospital or employed by a credentialed physicians within the facility in a variety of care settings and roles. RESULTS: Findings from the Work Satisfaction and Intent to Stay scales suggest that relationships in the workplace are important. Data related to the 7 workforce desire questions show that nurses in this organization support the characteristics of caring in the work environment as identified by Watson. The financial knowledge of the consequences of retirement related to income was low among both groups but slightly higher for the APNs. CONCLUSIONS: Implications of this study for nurse leaders include the importance of strengthening relationships among nursing colleagues and between the nurse and the supervisor particularly in the constructs of caring. Data support a need for increased education about finances and retirement for RNs in the workplace.

Nursing leadership in professional organizations.

This department highlights nursing leaders who have demonstrated the ability to inspire and lead change. This competency is seen in the ability to create, structure, and implement organizational change through strategic vision, risk taking, and effective communication. Each article showcases a project of a nurse leader who demonstrates change in a variety of environments, ranging from acute care hospitals to home care and alternative practice settings. Included are several "lessons learned" applicable to multiple settings that provide insight for other nurses in executive practice.

Nursing and the aging workforce: myths and reality, what do we really know?

Not unlike the general population, the population of nurses is aging. This trend is problematic for the nursing workforce in the light of a predicted shortage yet the extent of the effect of the aging population is unknown. What should individuals older than 45 years know to mitigate the effects of aging both physically and professionally? This article describes the magnitude of the aging nursing workforce issue, explores the myths and realities related to the aging process, discusses evidence-based strategies supporting healthy aging and retention of experienced nurses in one Magnet hospital, and introduces recommendations for further study.

Experienced nurse retention strategies: what can be learned from top-performing organizations.

Pursuit of high-quality care depends, in part, on hospital leaders' ability to retain an experienced RN workforce. Yet, 55% of nurses plan to retire between 2011 and 2020, heightening the need to identify proven retention strategies. Findings from 7 case studies conducted at hospitals and nonhealthcare organizations publicly recognized for success retaining experienced employees are summarized. The authors conclude that although the mix of retention strategies varies, all top-performing organizations share common success factors.