What Does Nurse Turnover Rate Mean and What Is the Rate?
Abstract
Registered nurse turnover is an important indicator of the nurse job market. Despite its wide use as a measure for health-care system analysis, there is a lack of consistency in the definition of turnover. Some definitions include any nurse leaving an organization; others may include involuntary and voluntary leaving. These inconsistent definitions also result in various turnover rates. The RN Work Project is a 10-year panel study of new nurses. Data were collected from the new nurses, rather than from a specific organization. About 17.5% of new nurses leave their first job within 1 year of starting their jobs. Consistent and accurate measurement of turnover is an important step in addressing organizational work environments and policies about the nursing workforce.
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Biographies
Christine T. Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN, a professor at the College of Nursing at New York University (NYU), a senior fellow at the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at the NYU, an attending in nursing at the NYU Langone Medical Center, and serves on the executive committee of NYU’s Clinical Translational Science Institute. Dr. Kovner is a co-principal investigator of a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation aimed at studying the career trajectories of newly licensed registered nurses over the first 10 years of their careers.
Carol S. Brewer, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a professor of nursing at the School of Nursing University at Buffalo. Dr. Brewer conducts research that examines RN workforce participation decisions. She is also co-principal investigator with Dr. Kovner. She also is a senior analyst for the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to examine longitudinal workforce behavior of RNs in metropolitan statistical areas.
Farida Fatehi is the data manager. She has numerous years of experience working with all aspects of the data management process, biostatistics, and programming for data analysis.
Jin Jun is a research assistant and PhD student.
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Article first published online: August 25, 2014
Issue published: August-November 2014
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Issue published: August-November 2014
Published online: August 25, 2014
PubMed: 25156041
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This article was published in Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice.
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