Retention and turnover policies for professional nurses at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital.

Abstract

One of the main challenges facing public sector healthcare services in South Africa is the shortage of professional nurses, driven in part by poor salaries. Despite initiatives undertaken to improve salaries, this has not yielded the desired results. The objective of this study was thus to determine some of the reasons for this shortage, and to explore the need to develop pragmatic retention strategies and turnover policies to curb nursing shortages at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital. A qualitative and quantitative survey of job satisfaction amongst professional nurses was conducted to identify what factors needed to be addressed to retain professional nurses at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital. It is integral that retention programmes be aimed at job satisfaction and organisational commitment. The findings show that organisational and management commitment contributes to job satisfaction of professional nurses. Based on these findings, recommendations were compiled for the retention of professional nurses at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital.