Date of Conferral
2-4-2025
Degree
Doctor of Healthcare Administration (D.H.A.)
School
Health Services
Advisor
Dr.Miriam Ross
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic was a health care crisis that caused unprecedented impacts on health care workers and services worldwide. The purpose of this quantitative retrospective study was to determine whether there was a significant difference in health care employee turnover between 2019 (prepandemic) and 2021 (postpandemic) based on the location and type of health care workers. The independent variable was the COVID-19 pandemic, and the dependent variables were rural employee turnover, urban employee turnover, and nursing and nonnursing turnover. The theoretical background was based on the theory of organizational equilibrium and Glasser’s choice theory. The secondary data were collected from a health system in Arizona. Results of the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests showed a statistically significant difference in rural and urban employee turnover between 2019 and 2021 (p < 0.001) for all employees. The employee turnover recorded in 2021 was higher than in 2019 for the rural and urban health care settings. There was a statistically significant difference in nursing turnover between 2019 and 2021 (p < 0.008). The nonnursing employees also showed a statistically significant difference in turnover between 2019 and 2021 (p < 0.009). Interestingly, the turnover of nonnurses was higher than that of nurses within the same period under study. The results may help health care administrators make more informed decisions that affect health care expenditure and promote positive social change. By synthesizing the findings from this study, urban health administrators may benefit from the operational and strategic planning proficiencies of rural administrators, and this collaboration may yield robust retention policies for future pandemics.
Recommended Citation
ABIMBOLA, ADELEKE MOSHOOD, "Turnover Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Health Care Workforce in Rural and Urban Settings in Arizona" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 17274.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/17274
