Attracting and retaining young nurses: strategies and experiences from a nursing school

Background: Declining admission and also high dropout rates in nursing education exacerbate shortages of skilled personnel. Objective: The contribution of nursing schools and practice facilities to the recruitment of young professionals and the prevention of training dropouts is assessed. Materials and methods: We evaluated official statistics, basic research, expert recommendations, and internal school data. Results: In Germany, the situation for both practicing nurses and nurses in training must improve if more people are to be attracted to training in caregiving. Conclusions: In Germany, awareness of the importance and value of nursing work needs to be raised to improve the image of the profession and attract more people to nursing training.