The Relationship Between Nursing Leadership Practices and Hospital Nursing Retention

With the current nursing shortage and the shrinkage of the American workforce, the challenges of recruiting and retaining nurses for hospital nursing are becoming increasingly difficult. Nursing leadership is responsible for the retention of nurses once they are recruited. Leadership styles exhibited by leaders are a major contributing factor to a nurse's decision to stay in a current position, transfer, or seek employment elsewhere or outside the profession. Researchers have found a link between the effectiveness of a transformational leadership style and that of a transactional leadership style in retaining nurses in hospitals. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.