Buerhaus: Reshape nursing narratives to improve recruitment, retention

The nursing workforce has become more educated, diverse, and publicly esteemed in the last 20 years. But negative messaging can sway recruitment and retention, potentially threatening the projected workforce growth to 1.2 million new RNs by 2035, said keynote speaker and health care economist Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, this week at AONL 2024. The entire field could be more data driven and solution oriented, Buerhaus said, suggesting that everyone from front-line staff to high-level administrators participate in shaping nursing’s public image and internal culture. Academic and professional publications could better serve the field by more thoroughly examining policy issues such as mandatory nurse staffing ratios. Such regulations could be seen as undermining the professional judgment and flexibility of nursing teams, leading to tension and conflict rather than collaborative efforts to improve patient care, Buerhaus said. Nurse leaders can actively counter these narratives and promote the contributions of nurses, including their resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Pay careful attention to these messages and rework [them more positively], and discuss the consequences of this persistent negativity with your staff,” Buerhaus said.