In regard to the Aug. 21 article on the nursing shortage, here are some thoughts on how to improve nursing retention.

Management style has a lot to do with nurses staying in nursing and recruiting more women and men to go into nursing. It is not just the direct management of the unit, division, or the hospital itself. It is also the doctors’ attitudes toward the nursing staff that is a retention and recruiting factor.

To maintain technical skills or to obtain them require a commitment from the administration and the nurse. To have a skilled and up to date staff costs money, time and effort. Finding the time and then the money for classes takes much effort. When one works night shift, scheduling becomes an issue, for one cannot work the night before a class and expect to retain anything taught the next day.

I have worked in several hospitals over the years and Moore Regional is an excellent place. Education, upgrading of skills, and maintaining the skills has been stressed. Clinical advancement is encouraged and active input is sought. The management style of our assistant director is a major factor of our low turnover.

Nursing would do well to add more intensive hospital experience to the nursing students core curriculum. With the decline of diploma schools, nursing students no longer have the intense hospital experience that students once had. Consequently, the new grad has a reality shock once she or he starts working. Since there are so many other places that employ nurses, the bedside nurses are becoming endangered. One never knows when one will be in a hospital bed and have the need of an educated, well-trained registered nurse.

Patricia Graefe

Registered Nurse

Sanford