Jenkins would like to see nursing work to change the attitudes “that prevent us from working together as a team,” she said. “I have more people quit because they can’t get along with their neighbor or co-worker.”

At last, she said, “We’re more like a family as opposed to people who just come to work. We worry about each other and we all work together as a team,” but it took her five years as director of nursing to create that.

Jenkins, 50, said she would incorporate into nursing students’ curricula a way “to show them what 10 years in the future would be like. If they had a little glimpse of what they’re getting into, maybe only the people who think they can handle that would do it. That would make room for the people who have a sincere calling,” she said.

Jeanna Bozell, RN
former recruiter, founder of NurseQuest, author
Solution snapshot: Foster nurses as leaders.

“You can recruit till the cows come home, and that’s what we see nurse recruiters in hospitals doing. Pull out all the stops, do the sign-on bonuses, basically bribe them in some way to get them in the door. But until you can stop the bleeding, they’re coming in the front door and leaving out the back door,” Bozell said.

“It’s not a quick fix,” but “I would provide leadership training in every facility. What I learned when I was a recruiter is the top 10 reasons nurses leave their jobs. 85 More than half of their reasons had to do with their direct supervisor.”

Bozell, 51, said the impetus for her latest book, The Nurse Leader’s Little Instruction Book: The Ultimate Resource for Retaining Staff, came from the role of clinical nurse specialist, the resource person to whom nurses, physicians and management turn because of expertise and research.

“My idea was to have a leadership resource specialist” to train management to bring people up through the ranks to be leaders. 85 They need to know how to build trust with their staff,” Bozell said. “It’s all about relationships.

“Recruitment is sales, retention is leadership.”

Contact Phil McPeck at getpjm@aol.com.