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It's such a familiar refrain in health care, particularly
among nurses, that jaws probably drop when RNs hear
why Linda Youngblood left the furniture industry to
become a nurse retention coordinator for Centra Health's
Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia.
"I'd been in management for 13 years and I'd had
enough of the stress and the hours and no life outside
of work," said Youngblood, who has a bachelor's
degree in organizational management, but no nursing
experience. She joined Centra Health five years ago
and-under a new vice president of nursing who had a
reputation for accessibility-was promoted into what
is traditionally a nurse's role.
Youngblood said the key to retention, which is inexorably
tied to nurses' self-image and satisfaction, is hearing
nurses, not just listening to them. "A lot of times
you have to go out seeking what their issues are,"
she said. "They're so busy and so tied up with
their own lives with work and family and all, they may
not come to you."
RNs are encouraged to raise issues with their supervisors
and unit managers, Youngblood said, but, "we all
know that sometimes that's not the most comfortable
route to go. So you have to ask."
And ask she does, not once, but repeatedly. It begins
with orientation: "We talk about work-life balance,
taking care of yourself and getting your priorities
straight. I have such a passion for that because I've
been there," Youngblood said.
Orientation is followed up with 10-question surveys
at three- and six-month intervals to assess staffers'
experience in the organization. Also, "about twice
a year we try to invite them to a breakfast or dinner
with our senior vice president of nursing or CEO to
hear what their concerns are," Youngblood said.
The effect of Youngblood's involvement, as well as
the open-door policy of Golden Bethune, MSN, RN, CNAA,
senior vice president of patient services, speaks for
itself. At Lynchburg General and Virginia Baptist hospitals,
a 14.3 percent turnover rate among nurses in 2000 fell
to 9 percent at the end of 2002, and continues to drop.
Absenteeism is dramatically lower, too, among other
signs that the staff is being heard.
"The nurse-sensitive indicators all are moving
in the right direction," Bethune said of the use
of patient restraints, medication errors, patient satisfaction
levels and other measures of nurses' performance.
Centra Health also recently hired a North Carolina
firm to conduct employee satisfaction surveys and create
plans of action for its hospitals.
Youngblood said she's gained a wealth of clinical knowledge
and added that plenty of nursing resources are available
when she needs them, but people issues tend to be the
same from industry to industry.
"What I hear most is that nurses take a lot of
pride in what they do. They feel good about what they
do and they want to know that their organization appreciates
their role and values the role they play," she
said.
As a recruiter hiring as many as 70 new RN graduates
a year, Youngblood is a front-row witness to the rapidly
changing face of nursing, from the frustrations of baby
boomers and older nurses, to the perceptions of high
schoolers, middle schoolers and even grade schoolers
who won't become nurses unless they at least consider
it a rewarding profession.
Of veteran nurses, she said, "You used to have
more time to spend with a patient, you could get to
know the patient. You could care personally for that
patient and they really miss that. You have that frustration
that nursing has changed; how they nursed when they
started their careers and how they nurse now is very
different," she said.
Additionally, patient acuity is much higher than it
used to be.
But Youngblood, who at age 51 can empathize with veteran
RNs, said she is optimistic on the future of nursing
because of the younger nurses she sees. They include
second- or third-career nurses of all ages. "They
seem so mature and they are so excited about their roles,"
she said.
Youngblood said she is fortunate that locally she can
tap bachelor's of nursing degree programs at Liberty
University and Lynchburg College, as well as Centra
Health's own diploma program for new staff. "Of
course, they do their clinicals here," she said,
and that's where success-which is a key component of
job satisfaction-begins.
Centra also has an extern program for senior-year students,
in which they are paid and work one-on-one with a preceptor,
in exchange for a one-year employment commitment after
they graduate.
Youngblood's influence begins well before college,
though, encouraging teens and preteens, girls and boys,
to think of nursing as a career. Most receptive, she
said, are those who have family members in a health
profession or a parent, grandparent or other close relative
who has had good nursing care. Those who have never
had exposure to nursing usually don't consider making
it their careers.
"I keep in my office the Johnson & Johnson
video and brochures, a packet of information on nursing
as a career, salaries, where to go to school and the
type of classes you will need," Youngblood said.
The television-produced glamour of pediatrics, labor
and delivery, and emergency and operating room nursing
creates a lot of interest, but there also is legal nursing,
corporate nursing and teaching. "You can pretty
much do anything with nursing," Youngblood said.
"Our job is to expose them to all areas of nursing,
show them all the possibilities, not just bedside nursing."
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