Gutekunst Marie-Claude, Delucca Jeanine, Kessler Beth A
Evidence Based Practice & Clinical Excellence Department, Lehigh Valley Health Network, Allentown, PA 18103, USA.
J Contin Educ Nurs. 2012 Jul;43(7):309-14. doi: 10.3928/00220124-20120402-18. Epub 2012 Apr 9.
The retention and professional development of the medical-surgical nurse is a challenging endeavor. Voluntary nurse turnover affects the collective costs of direct and indirect recruiting, productivity and training, and termination. These costs are estimated to be 0.75 to 1.30 times a nurse's average departing salary. The multifactorial dimensions of nursing retention remain a challenge for leaders at the organizational level. This article describes an educational strategy in the form of an advanced medical-surgical course used by a multicampus academic community Magnet® hospital to increase the retention and professional development of medical-surgical nurses. The authors report the goals, content, and outcomes of this advanced medical-surgical course.
