The Influence of Authentic Leadership and Empowerment on Nursing Staff Retention [Original source: https://prothesiswriter.com/samples/the-influence-of-authentic-leadership-and-empowerment-on-nursing-staff-retention]

Chapter 1: Introduction
Problem background  
Turnover among the nursing staff is an issue that severely impacts the performance and  profitability of medical institutions. Any institution within the pharmaceutical sector usually  needs highly trained, fully committed and stable nursing staff to offer adequate medical care to  their clients. Despite the greater need for more nurses, the current rate of nursing turnover is still  alarming (Barbato, 2013). It is assumed that the problem of nursing turnover will even increase  within the next few years, as growth in the healthcare industry continues to outnumber the supply of nurses who are present at the current times. It is roughly approximated that there will be at  least one million shortages of nurses within the US by 2020.

Literature indicates that employee retention is a crucial measure for establishing the fiscal and the general health of an institution. Any dynamic within the place of work that drives a  higher turnover rate among the employees should always be modified at its earliest time.  Employers within the healthcare institution who fail to make assessment of the seriousness of  employee turnover are boycotting very essential resources in the institution that have negative  impact on the overall financial interests of the institution, the whole process of nursing care,  patient care, and positive healthy working environment for both the patients and staff (Barbato,  2013). For example, it is approximated that nursing staff turnover accounts for more than 5% of  the total working budget of Kaiser Permanente Hospital and this is always compelled with loss  of a very instrumental group of nursing staff. The literature demonstrates that having a better  working environment between employees and top organizational leadership can reduce the nurse  turnover rate (Choi & Ahn, 2016). The leadership can do this by improving the perception

concerning employees’ engagement, organizational support, team cohesion and lastly,  connection to the mission of the medical institution.

Problem statement
Nursing staff retention in the healthcare industry is of great concern. The high turnover  rate of these professional workers has posed significant challenges to healthcare institutions and  other agencies who are concerned with healthcare. Nursing is an academic discipline and  profession whose primary goal is to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of individuals,  groups, community and the entire population. They perform this role through direct practice,  organizing the communities, policy, research, teaching, and crisis interventions. Their analysis  and methods are always concerned with the counseling, social policy, psychotherapy, social  program evaluation, and community development (Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn & Wu, 2016).  The practice of professional nursing means undertaking acts which need a functional level of  judgment, knowledge, as well as skills in nursing, all based on physical, biological and social  sciences. The scope of practice as a licensed nurse is to maintain health, promote wellness, and  prevent diseases or illness from members of the community.  

Despite the expectation to perform all these crucial roles, there have been high cases of  turnover among nursing employees. The retention rate is so low while the percentage of people  who are planning to leave the profession continues to increase day by day. Several research  articles have shown that more than 43 percent of nurses in community mental health departments and 39 percent of nurses in family services are very likely to leave their jobs within the next two  years. The findings also report that there is a 50 percent yearly turnover rate among mental  health nursing workers at the community, and over 60 percent turnover rate each year among the  general human services nursing workers (Hoch, Bommer, Dulebohn & Wu, 2016).

Retention of nursing staff is a very critical affair that must be given the priority within  healthcare institutions, considering the essential roles that such nurses usually play in offering  appropriate health care. The literature demonstrates that the present rate of nursing turnover has a severe impact not only to the nurses themselves but also to the organization and the patients.  Nurses are not only considered as vital stakeholders, but they play essential functions in the daily running of healthcare institutions. Without having higher retention of nurses, not even a single  healthcare organization can be in a position of achieving its intended objectives (Jaramillo,  Bande & Varela, 2015). Nursing turnover has a human cost that is strongly linked to poor  quali