Do Not Wait Until It Is Too Late: Using Stay Interviews to Engage and Retain Nursing Staff

Abstract

Existing engagement and retention strategies fall short in comprehensively addressing the ongoing nursing workforce crisis and need to be supplemented with proactive, relationship-building approaches such as stay interviews. Stay interviews are structured discussions that leaders conduct with staff members to learn the specific actions that must be taken to strengthen their engagement with the organization. Nurse leaders play a critical role in responding to the current workforce challenges, and stay interviews can support them in developing interventions to promote engagement and retention. This paper discusses core features and advantages of stay interviews and outlines how nurse leaders can implement stay interviews.