Does registered nurse (RN) involvement in improving healthcare services, influence RN retention?

Background: Registered nurses are ‘critical’ to population health, international responses to emergencies, epidemics and disasters. Retention of registered nurses is an international nursing priority. In England, registered nurses are encouraged to be involved in improving healthcare services. This benefits quality of care, operational and financial performance. However, registered nurse involvement in improvement may reduce registered nurse retention. It is important to understand this relationship when developing effective registered nurse retention strategies. Aim: The purpose of this research is to describe possible relationships between registered nurse involvement in improving healthcare services and registered nurse retention, using published 2018 data for National Health Service trusts in England. Methods: The relationship between registered nurse involvement in improving healthcare services and registered nurse retention was explored using a correlational design, involving secondary data from the annual National Health Service staff survey and Model Hospital. Results: In mental health National Health Service trusts in England, a statistically significant, positive correlation of 0.24 was found between registered nurse ‘ab(ility) to make suggestions for improvement’ and registered nurse retention. In mental health NHS trusts a statistically significant correlation of 0.278 was found between registered nurses ‘making improvements happen’ and registered nurse retention. In acute National Health Service trusts in England, a statistically significant, negative correlation of -0.15 was identified between registered nurses ‘mak(ing) improvements happen’ and registered nurse retention. Conclusions: The findings suggest that registered nurse retention factors in mental health and acute National Health Service trusts differ from community and specialist National Health Service trusts in England. This is an important consideration for national registered nurse retention programmes as a single approach to registered nurse retention may not be effective across all healthcare settings.