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Hospitals that work to keep their staff nurses satisfied are doing so in a variety of ways, including bonuses or pay raises, and scheduling perks that give nurses greater control over their workloads.

Karen Teatum, RN, was hosting a small party at her home recently when a phone call from a fellow nurse at Arkansas Heart Hospital in Little Rock made the gathering immediately more festive.

The hospital, the caller said, had announced a bonus program for its nurses that would pay them $20,000 over three years. "I was stunned and amazed," Teatum said. "My initial response was, 'Where's the paperwork? Let's get started!' "

Nurses around the country are receiving similar good news these days, as hospitals entice them with everything from more money to greater work flexibility to a variety of other on-the-job perks. This growing wave of largesse on the part of hospital administrators is an attempt to address a challenge that often gets lost amid the publicity surrounding the nursing shortage: nursing retention.

As health care leaders continue working to attract more nurses to the profession, an increasing number of hospitals are acknowledging the urgency of retaining the nurses they already have. "Our No.1 goal these days is retention," said Nancy Ray, chief nursing officer and associate administrator at University Hospital in San Antonio.

Ray and others said that retaining nurses is crucial to the well-being of any hospital-from both operational and financial standpoints.

"It's so important to have longtime nurses," said Leah Golden, RN, resuscitation program educational coordinator at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. "They're the ones who know the system as well as the best way to care for the patients that the hospital commonly sees. In addition, it's a well-known fact that it costs a lot more to train a new nurse than to retain one."

What's also well-known is that retaining nurses in today's health care climate is becoming ever more difficult. Due largely to the nursing shortage, many nurses say they are overworked and stressed out. As a result, some leave the profession altogether. What's more, the shortage has made it easier for nurses to work anywhere they want. This has turned many nurses into free agents who move from one hospital to the next in pursuit of better job conditions.

"It happens a lot down here," Teatum said, referring to the job-hopping trend she's noticed. "I know one nurse who has worked at four hospitals in five years."

Golden sees such a phenomenon as a simple fact of life in the nursing field today-and one that more hospitals need to address. "Many nurses are going to have their pick of hospitals anywhere," she said. "And if they're not treated well, they're going to move on."

Love 'em or lose 'em

Hospitals that are working to keep their staff nurses satisfied are doing so in a variety of ways. One such method is greater financial compensation in the form of bonuses or pay raises.

Teatum said that before Arkansas Heart Hospital announced its bonus program, a series of management changes-and the seemingly constant introduction of policy changes-had created low morale among the nursing staff.

She added that the nurses and doctors enjoy a close relationship at her hospital-and it was the doctors who went to bat for her and her colleagues. "Everyone was unhappy and we let the doctors know about it," she said. "And they essentially told the hospital that there's a problem and that it needed to be fixed."

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