“Retaining high-quality, healthy, and well-educated nurses is vital to health systems’ capacities to provide patients with safe and evidence-based care. Research consistently demonstrates the benefits to patient safety when hospitals are adequately staffed with qualified nurses. Yet, estimates show over one-third of nurses have expressed some intention to leave their jobs and that approximately 1 in 5 nurses leave their jobs annually.
In the Southeastern United States, nurse turnover and intent to leave are particularly acute relative to elsewhere in the nation. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated working conditions for many nurses, accelerating trends with increasing numbers of nurses leaving, or planning to leave their positions, and even the profession. Identifying scalable approaches to promote workplace well-being and foster nurse retention is urgently needed
to stymie continued losses to the nurse workforce.”

“The findings from the interviews with leaders in high-performing nursing units provided valuable insights into the factors that contribute to a positive work environment and staff well-being. These leaders demonstrated a strong commitment to fostering a positive and healthy workplace culture, which aligns with the existing literature on the importance of supportive leadership for employee well-being and nurse retention. Various managerial approaches were implemented by nurse leaders on high-performing units to promote open communication, create transparency in safety and incident reporting, foster team cohesion, and manage staff concerns with work and personal life obligations as well as career advancement. Collectively, these efforts can continue to be studied and scaled to discern their impact on organizational-level outcomes, including nurse retention.”

Giordano, N. A., Bouvier, M., Davis, M. V., Gowgiel, J., Averill, H., Hillman, J., Giordano, K., Rider, N., Cunningham, T., Swan, B. A., Feistritzer, N. R., & Pappas, S. H. (2025). Approaches Implemented by Nurse Managers Linked to High-Performing Clinical Care Teams. The Journal of nursing administration, 55(9), 529–534.