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Show Policy Proposal: Changing Benefits from Individual Units to the University of Utah Hospital Organization Elizabeth Vikla, University of Utah BSN Student Spring 2021 Background The current University of Utah policy has benefits and perks being connected to individual units rather than the organization as a whole. This is an issue because it encourages nurses to stay too long with their unit, which exacerabates burnout. Burnout and compassion fatigue lead to decreased levels of satisfaction for nurses which affect patients and cause higher turnover.1 PICOT Question For nurses in the University of Utah hospital system how would seniority perks transferring within the organization rather than being connected to specific units help change satisfaction scores for nurses for their well-being and profession over a twelve-month period? Intervention • Change the current policy for benefits to be connected to the University system. • Begin this change with a trial run of 20% of the Hospital system’s units while accounting for a full range of different acuities and units that have job openings. • Participating nurses in these units should be measured on their levels of satisfaction with their job, compassion fatigue, and burnout. • These values should be measured every three months. • Extensive surveys should be utilized for nurses who change units. • Nurses who are not in these participating units should also be monitored to create a contrast between the different policies. Barriers • Modifying the current paradigm from benefits and perks associated with the individual units to the hospital organization will represent a significant change in policy. • These types of wide-spread changes can be difficult to implement as it will affect hundreds of nurses. • Individuals from multiple parts of the administration will need to be recruited to help push a policy change like this such as Human Resources, nurse managers, and the Chief of Nursing. • Lowering turnover rate and thus lowering costs to the hospital system as well as increasing patient satisfaction should be a great incentive in getting this policy proposal considered and chosen. Why Does this Matter? • Keeping nurses satisfied is key to patient satisfaction. A study in 2011 discovered that the percentage of satisfied patients decreased by two percentage points for every ten percent of nurses reporting being dissatisfaction with their jobs.2 • Nurse retention is crucial for hospitals as up to 33% of new nurses quit the profession before two years,3 and up to 43% quit within three years.4 • Nurse turnover is a financial strain to organizations as it can cost $37,700-58,400 per nurse. This sky rockets costs to $4.9M-7.6M annually for the average hospital.5 5 Conclusions It is in the University of Utah’s best interest to consider this policy change as it will be more cost effective and beneficial to get nurses to invest in the organization. This policy proposal offers attractive incentives for mid-career nurses who can reinvigorate their passion with growth opportunities while inspiring new nurses to consider a long career with the University. References: 1. Benyon, B. (2020, January 30). Compassion Fatigue, Burnout Leads to High Nursing Turnover. Oncology Nursing News. Retrieved from: https://www.oncnursingnews.com/view/compassion-fatigue-burnout-leadsto-high-nursing-turnover 2. McHugh, M. D. (2018). Nurses’ widespread job dissatisfaction, burnout, and frustration with health benefits signal problems for patient care. PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21289340/ 3. Androus, A. (2021, January). The (Not So) Great Escape: Why New Nurses are Leaving the Profession. Retrieved from: https://www.registerednursing.org/articles/why-new-nurses-leaving-profession/ 4. The High Cost of Nurse Turnover. (2016, November 30). University of New Mexico. Retrieved from: https://rnbsnonline.unm.edu/articles/high-cost-of-nurse-turnover.aspx 5. Vaughn, N. (2020, October 29). Nurse Turnover Rates: How to Reduce Healthcare Turnover. Relias. Retrieved from: https://www.relias.com/blog/how-to-reduce-healthcareturnover#:%7E:text=While%20the%20cost%20to%20train,onboarding%20and%20training%20even%20begin. COLLEGE OF NURSING |
