Determining Nursing Retention Strategy in a Large Public Teaching Hospital

In 1988, the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center (LAC USC) surveyed 1,102 RNs (75% of its total RN population) to determine factors critical to nursing retention. The Nursing Retention Survey required participants to rank 46 retention factors related to compensation benefits, work environment, amount and type of work, work relationships, availability of support services, management practices, and opportunities for professional growth. This article reports survey responses for the ten most significant and ten least significant retention factors. Survey findings, which guided LAC USC in designing nursing retention strategies, show that RNs who stated that they would leave their jobs were consistently less satisfied with all the top-ranking important elements than those who would stay.