Nursing recruitment and retention issues: Similarities and differences rural United States and Australia

Nursing recruitment and retention is an issue of global importance. Internationally, there is a shortage of registered nurses especially in rural areas. A comparison of nursing recruitment and retention methods between Australia and the United States found nurses in both countries were on average about 47 years of age and generally dissatisfied with workplace conditions. The Nursing Work-life Model (Manojlovich & Laschinger, 2007) was utilized to demonstrate the relationship between nursing burnout, quality of care, and the impact of empowerment on nursing morale. Using the Into the Future Survey (Epimedia, 2007), the study assessed the perceptions of rurally based nurses in Australia and the United States on five scales addressing: why they would apply for a job (Apply), satisfaction with their rural position (Rural), why they would continue working in their present job (Continue), what the institution needs to focus on to recruit new employees (Focus), and why an individual might leave their job (Leave). Factorial analysis of variance, rank order of the items by country in each scale, and open-ended comments for each scale were used in the analysis.;Significant differences were identified by country. The rank ordered items for nurses from Australia and the United States proved to be different, but emphasized the importance of a positive workplace, good management, job satisfaction, and job security for nurses. When asked what areas management needed to focus on to improve recruitment and retention, the workplace culture and morale, rewarding existing employee achievements, and increase flexible working conditions were highly rated. Decisions to leave a rural facility included, feeling unvalued, workplace morale/culture, and job satisfaction.;The United States is estimated to have a shortage of nearly 1 million nurses by 2020 and Australia estimates a shortage of over 45,000 nurses by 2020. The findings indicated non-financial issues rated high as factors nurses considered when leaving rural employment. Past efforts to recruit and reward new nurses in rural hospitals does not address the contributions offered by existing nursing staff and may serve as a key dissatisfier for them.