Full-time work first step in retaining nurses

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Zeytinoglu_Isik.jpg” caption=”Isik Zeytinoglu”]The announcement this week that Ontario will guarantee full-time employment to all nursing graduates in the province starting next year is a step in the right direction, new research from McMaster shows.

“New graduates want to work full-time. They want to pay their student debts and start their work life on a solid ground. However, in order to retain nurses, policy makers have to make sure that all nurses, not just new ones, are employed in jobs they prefer, whether those jobs are full-time, part-time or casual,” explains Professor Isik Zeytinoglu, who studies human resources & management at the DeGroote School of Business.

In the study published in the journal Health Policy, Zeytinoglu along with researchers from the McMaster Centre for Gerontological Studies and the School of Nursing surveyed 1,396 nurses employed in three Ontario hospitals. They found that full-time, part-time and casual nurses each respond differently to overtime, wages and stress.

“Gearing policies to the needs and interests of each of these specific groups will help us to retain and recruit nurses,” explains Zeytinoglu.

Only 19 per cent of new graduates last year in Ontario had full-time jobs immediately upon graduation, down from the 21 per cent of the previous year. Presently in Ontario only 52 per cent of nurses are full-time, and the number of nurses in part-time and casual jobs is substantially higher than the Canadian average.

Zeytinoglu says, “People who are not able to find full-time employment or who are not employed in the job that they prefer experience increased stress. Not only do high levels of stress increase the propensity that nurses will leave their jobs, but stress also has a negative impact on patient care.”