Date of Conferral

6-13-2024

Date of Award

6-13-2024

Degree

Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.)

School

Human Services

Advisor

Miriam Ross

Abstract

Appropriate nurse staffing levels are necessary to maintain the safety of the nurses, the patients, and the organization. The Veterans Health Administration continues to have severe occupational shortages year after year and needs to identify better recruitment and retention strategies to improve the deficits. This integrative review aims to provide strategies to address nursing staff shortages in the Veterans Health Administration hospitals. For this integrative review, empirical and non-empirical sources were utilized to identify best practices for improved recruitment and retention strategies and to better understand this healthcare issue. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was the framework for this review. The results of the integrative review could provide healthcare administrators and managers with more information to facilitate better recruiting and retention strategies for qualified nurses, which could contribute to decreasing the staffing deficit. The five main themes of the study, as related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, were physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The 11 subthemes were scheduling flexibilities, work environment, organizational culture, nurse engagement, organizational support, strong communication, organizational commitment, collaborative workspace, training and education, mentorship for new nurses, and professional growth and development. There is a need to reevaluate the current measures utilized for nurse staffing efforts and contributing factors to better identify any areas that can be adjusted to improve the retention of current qualified and experienced nurses while attracting new nurses to improve staffing deficits leading to positive social change.

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