According to the WHO, the lack of healthcare staff is going to be the biggest challenge for European health systems in the years to come(Ticking Timebomb, n.d.). In the USA, according to a McKinsey survey from 2021, 22% of the registered nurses wish to leave their job. Furthermore, a projection of data from the The National Council of State Boards of Nursing estimates that already by 2027, one fifth on the total of registered nurses (900,000 nurses) will leave their job in the US health sector, resulting in a huge gap between demand and resource input in the US health sector.
In Denmark, already today, there are many testimonials about cancelled or postponed procedures because the surgical wards do not have sufficient staff to carry out the planned surgeries. The gap between the current number of healthcare staff and the current need is estimated to be 5,000 (in 2024). Recruitment of new staff as well as retention of existing staff is becoming a major challenge for Danish hospital departments. This trend is expected to increase in the years to come. The Danish Doctors Association anticipates that there will be a deficit of 40,000 health professionals in 2030 and of 100,000 in 2045. A prognosis from the Ministry of Health and the Interior anticipates that the Danish hospital/health care sector will be lacking 300,000 employees by the year of 2050 if the current trend of nurses leaving their jobs will continue. This gap between the number of nurses needed and the number working or planning to work in the hospitals is one of the main challenges for healthcare not only in Denmark, and the USA, but in most Western countries. This challenge will only be enforced in the future because of the increasing demand for health services due to an ageing population. Also, since nurses are predominant contributors to the patient experience, sense of coherence and patient satisfaction, solutions to address this challenge to this are highly warranted.
It has been said that one of the reasons for the decline in the number of students wishing to become a nurse or trained nurses wishing to stay in their jobs is the relatively low salary for nurses compared to other public employees (e.g. doctors). It has also been stated (in Denmark) that one solution to the current and future understaffing problem is to prevent the nurses from working part time. This project hypothesizes that there are many other, and perhaps more important, reasons for the understaffing problem than salary levels and working time. It seems for instance that there is an asymmetry of assumptions between the governing bodies in Denmark, the regional and local management, and the health care employees.
This project will investigate factors that may have an impact on job satisfaction and job motivation for nurses working in hospital wards in Denmark and in other countries, such as the U.S.. It will investigate similarities and differences between the different countries and health organizational settings. It will also assess the extent to which contextual factors, such as health system-related, as well as cultural and organizational differences, may influence retention of nurses in their jobs. Finally, it aims at identifying potential retention strategies that may or may not work in the different settings cultural and organizational.
The project will use a mixed methods approach to investigate the research questions. It will draw on published quantitative and qualitative data and scientific literature as well as “grey” literature (reports from administrative bodies/patient advocacy associations etc.). Also, we will apply interview techniques (individual, semi-structured, and focus group) to map and analyze the elements of a nurse job and its place in a health organization and its environment. The project will be structured in seven work packages, each with a different focus and perspective on the topic. The interviews will be based on semi-structured interview guides based on input/learnings from the work packages.
Selected relevant publications:
- Takawira C Marufu, Alexandra Collins, Liavel Vargas, Lucy Gillespie, Dalal Almghairbi (2021). Factors influencing retention among hospital nurses: systematic review. British Journal of Nursing VOL. 30, NO. 5. doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.302
- Nei, Darin; Snyder, Lori Anderson; Litwiller, Brett J (2015). Promoting retention of nurses: A meta-analytic examination of causes of nurse turnover. Health Care Management Review 40(3): p 237-253. DOI: 10.1097/HMR.0000000000000025
- Marita Naud; Rebecca McCabe (2005). Increasing Retention of Nursing Staff at Hospitals: Aspects of Management and Leadership. Australian Bulletin of Labour, Vol. 31, No. 4, 426-439. https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/ielapa.011136237835434
Related Discipline(s)
This course would also be of interest to the following discipline(s):Anthropology, Management, Organizational Behavior
