Why Nurses Remain in the Nursing Profession

This groundbreaking volume investigates why practicing nurses decide to remain in the profession. Combining insights from theoretical perspectives with empirical findings from over a decade of research, it sheds light on a vital topic for healthcare services and nurses globally. Skilled nurses play a critical role in providing quality care; however, countries worldwide face difficulties in the education, recruitment, and retention of nurses, leading to heavy workloads for those who remain, difficult starts for new graduates, and negative impacts on patient care and, in turn, public health. Focusing on the reasons why nurses stay in the profession - and including the voices of nurses illustrating this throughout - this book also reveals why nurses leave and how recruitment and retention of nursing staff can be improved. Kristoffersen argues that the decision to remain a nurse is linked to an individual's self-understanding and identity and describes a process by which nurses perpetually deepen and widen their horizons of identity while, at the same time, having to balance what they strive to achieve and the challenges they have to face in everyday nursing care. It includes case studies looking at newly graduated nurses, home health care, mental health, nursing home, and school nurses. This is an important contribution for researchers and advanced students interested in nursing management, professional issues in nursing, nursing leadership, education, and the organization of health services.

Margareth Kristoffersen is Professor Emerita in Nursing Science, The Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Stavanger, Norway. She is a registered nurse and holds a PhD. Her research interests in the field of nursing have a specific focus on why nurses remain in their profession, leadership, and higher education, with an emphasis on how professionals studying at master's and PhD levels develop their competence. Kristoffersen has broad experience in guidance and teaching in higher education.

PART ONE, 1. Introduction., PART TWO, 2. A Comprehensive Understanding of Nurses Remaining in the Profession - Development of a Model., 3. Theoretical Foundation of a Comprehensive Understanding of Nurses Remaining in the Profession., 4. Empirical Foundation of a Comprehensive Understanding of Nurses Remaining in the Profession., PART THREE, 5. Solidarity and Nursing Communities., 6. Problematizing Destructive Demands in Relationship-based Nursing Care. Margareth, 7. Explicating Boundaries of Care Responsibility., 8. Self-realization and Nursing Knowledge., 9. Professional Identity and the Choice to Remain in the Nursing Profession., PART FOUR, 10. Newly Graduated Nurses in a Tug of War., 11. Nurses in Home Healthcare Services and What is Essential for Remaining in Their Position., 12. Health Professionals' Interactions with Mentally Ill Patients and What They Receive for Themselves when Remaining in Their Position., 13. School Nurses and Self-realization., 14. Nursing Leaders' Grip to Retain Nurses in Nursing Homes., 15. Retaining Nurses in Nursing Homes - Nursing Leaders Facilitating Work Tasks to Nurses. , PART FIVE, 16. Concluding Remarks for the Future.