Dealing with premature employee turnover

Premature nurse turnover was a topic of critical concern to nursing managers through the early 1980s. For the past few years, there has been less discussion of such turnover and what had previously been an acute shortage of nurses. A recent Wall Street Journal article suggests why this lack of overt interest in nurse turnover may have arisen: "Economic downturns, paradoxically, often act as apparent cures for existing problems. In the midst of the past recession, for example, few companies [substitute hospitals] paid much attention to a management problem that was pervasive during the prerecession growth period: professional turnover." While the earlier nursing shortage may never reappear as critically as before, it is increasingly clear that understanding the causes of premature nurse turnover is essential if hospitals are to be able to retain their most valued nurse staff members. Thus, there remains a strong interest in the attitudinal precursors of such turnover and how they might help nursing managers avert dysfunctional nurse turnover.

The legality of nursing associations serving as collective bargaining agents: the Arundel case

Several recent legal developments have been analyzed which call into question the appropriateness of state nursing associations as collective bargaining agents for working nurses. A federal case ruled that because some state nursing associations are dominated by supervisors, they are inappropriate collective bargaining agents for nonsupervisory nurses. A review of the pertinent history and literature reveals that collective bargaining has tended to be a secondary concern of nursing leaders who have more resolutely pursued what they regard as a professional route to elevating the status of nurses. Therefore, the highly stratified nature of nursing practice and the highly disparate roads to improving the status of nursing held by various sectors within nursing have resulted in conflicts of interests which call into serious question whether umbrella groups like nursing associations can represent working nurses.