With the healthcare industry facing a dire nursing shortage and facil-
ities everywhere struggling to keep the quality nurses they have and
attract new nurses to a career in the OR, building lasting bonds with
top talent is imperative. Your facility's ability to survive and thrive
depends on preventing staff turnover. Luckily, despite what scores of
business relationship experts want you to believe, hanging on to your
high performers isn't all that difficult — as long as you remain com-
mitted to nurturing your workplace relationships.
Put yourself out there
As a leader, the best way to ensure your staff is happy and sat-
isfied is by simply asking them. Keeping the lines of communication
open and constantly touching base with members of your team to
find out what they do and don't like about their jobs is key. Of
course, not everyone feels comfortable telling their managers what
they really think. One alternative: Put a comment box in the hallway
on a quarterly basis and encourage staff to voice their comments,
concerns, and grievances anonymously.
Talk about your problems
You'll be surprised at what happens when everyone speaks
openly about their likes and dislikes. I worked with a director of nurs-
ing at a surgery center who felt like her entire staff was going behind
her back about challenges they faced. She brought her concerns to
her administrator, who denied knowing anything was amiss. The cycle
continued, but the director knew something wasn't adding up. To
resolve the problem, she held a meeting and asked her staff directly
about the issue.
Turns out, she wasn't overreacting. Her team was avoiding her
because the administrator had said, "If you have a problem for the
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