Introduction
Close to 60% of all new graduate nurses who are employed at health care institutions, leave those places within the first year of employment (Pine & Tart, 2007). The cumulative effect of this high turnover has staggering losses. A 2004 economic analysis of this issue reported that the dollar cost of turnover per Registered Nurse (RN) in a 6000-bed acute care hospital is more than $60,000 (Ponyton et al, 2007). Nurse turnover negatively affects the ability of the patient care team thereby compromising the quality of care given in that hospital. In addition it results in personal losses to the ...
