2003 Salary Survey Results
Good managers are key to retention of experienced nurses
Supportive, approachable, and fair are vital traits
Same-day surgery managers have looked at every aspect of their new employee recruitment program to identify how to best attract good nurses. Partnerships with nursing schools, accreditation as a magnet facility, and a strong benefits package are a few ways to attract new nurses, but how do you keep them satisfied with the job and happy with you as an employer?
Retention is a key issue for respondents to the 2003 Same-Day Surgery Salary Survey: Almost 56% of the respondents saw an increase in employees during the past year.
As same-day surgery programs get busier and staff sizes increase, it is more important than ever to be able to keep good employees because it is too hard to replace them, says Karen A. Hart, RN, BSN, senior vice president of the health care division of the Bernard Hodes Group, a human resource communications company in New York City.
The SDS salary survey was mailed in June to 1,029 subscribers and had 147 responses, for a response rate of 14.3%.
While salaries and benefits are important to recruitment of new nurses, they are not key reasons that nurses leave their employees, according to a survey recently conducted by Bernard Hodes Group, Hart says. (For a copy of the survey report, go
to www.hodes.com/hcrecruiting/, then click on "Nursing’s Pulse" under the research and results section.) The reasons nurses leave include not feeling valued (39%), lack of growth potential (33%), lack of confidence in management (31%), and lack of professional respect (30%), she adds.
"We find that a manager or supervisor is the key to retention of a quality nursing staff," says Hart.
"There are people who are natural managers, and you can see it immediately as they talk with other people and walk around their departments. Other people may need training because they don’t instinctively know what is necessary to manage people," she adds.
Traits valued by different age groups
Manager traits that are important to employees can differ according to generational differences, says Ann Warner, RN, MS, CCRN, assistant professor in the College of Nursing at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA.
"In a study that we conducted to compare the traits nursing students considered important to manager traits that experienced nurses considered important, we found a number of interesting differences," she says.1
"Of the top three traits identified by both groups, only team player’ and receptive to
people and ideas’ is mentioned as a top 10 trait by both groups," says Warner.
Even with these two traits, the groups ranked them differently, she points out. "Experienced nurses identified receptive to people and ideas’ as third most important, while students rank it ninth. Team player’ is ranked first by students, while experienced nurses rank it ninth. Clearly these two groups value different traits," she adds.
Carol Hiatt, RN, nurse administrator of Ocala (FL) Eye Surgery, says, "Staff members want to know that their experience, ideas, and suggestions are appreciated."
One of the reasons Hiatt’s same-day surgery program has experienced virtually no turnover in the seven years she has been the administrator is the willingness of the physician owners to listen to the staff, she says.
While she is the administrator, Hiatt points out that she can only reflect the values of the owners when it comes to staff, so the owners also must possess the same traits employees’ value in a day-to-day manager, she adds.
A good example of the physician-owners’ willingness to listen is related to patient wait times, says Hiatt. "When our nurses noticed that patients were waiting a long time in the preoperative area, they conducted a time study to discover why the waits were occurring," she explains.
"They discovered that although the physicians might say that they want to start the procedure at 8:15 a.m., they were not arriving at the facility until 8:15, then starting 30 minutes later," Hiatt continues.
When that information was presented, the staff suggested that they be allowed to adjust the schedules so that the patients did not arrive so early, she explains. "This suggestion was well-received, and the staff were told to set schedules in whatever way would minimize patient wait times," Hiatt adds.
Managers need to understand generations
The differences in traits valued in a manager are generational, says Julie Thompson, RN, MSN, CNOR, administrative research coordinator for the Harris County Hospital District in Houston and co-author of the study.
"This is important for same-day surgery managers to understand, because many managers and many entrenched nurses are members of the baby boomer generation who are having to learn how to supervise members of the Generation X. (For more information on the differences between generations, see "Managing Generation X in same-day surgery," Same-Day Surgery, February 2000, p. 16.)
Salary survey respondents are representative of the baby-boomer generation, with more than 69% of respondents born between 1943 and 1961. (See chart, below.) Generation X, born between 1960 and 1980, is represented by almost 14% of survey respondents.
"We believe that the perioperative setting is tailor-made for members of Generation X, because they are self-reliant, technologically oriented, and interested in the flexible scheduling that same-day surgery programs can offer," says Thompson.
"What is necessary, however, is that managers understand that the emerging work force wants to be appreciated in different ways, such as an e-mail that thanks the employee for doing something above and beyond their responsibility or passing along a compliment from a patient or physician," she points out.
The emerging work force also is focused on outcomes and doesn’t want long meetings at which issues are discussed at length, she adds.
"Generation X employees want you to give them a task, then let them do it," Thompson says.
A hard-working profession
"Nurses tend to be workaholics," Hart says, "but there are generational differences, so
managers need to understand that while baby boomers will put in long hours, Generation X nurses want to finish the task, then move on to their personal life."
Salary survey respondents also point out that same-day surgery managers are willing to put in longer than normal weeks as well, with slightly more than 90% of the respondents working more than 40 hours each week. (See chart.)
With the extra work hours, the good news for survey respondents is that although slightly more than 14% experienced no pay increase in 2003, almost 67% experienced an increase that ranged between 1 and 6%. (See chart.) Slightly more than 55% of survey respondents earn between $50,000 and $80,000 annually. (See middle chart.)
With increasing workloads for managers, it is more important than ever that managers be able to prioritize their work, says Hart.
"Being able to prioritize your staff’s work is also an important trait for a manager because employees want to know that the manager has them doing the most important work when time is limited," she adds.
If you want to evaluate your own management style, Hart suggests that you think back to all the years of your work experience.
"I always tell managers that it is helpful to think about the manager that made the biggest difference in their careers. What qualities possessed by that manager can you emulate?" she says.
Hart adds, "When you encounter a difficult situation, ask yourself what that manager would have said or done."
Reference
1. Thompson J, Wieck L, Warner A. What perioperative and emerging workforce nurses want in a manager. AORN Journal 2001; 78:246-261.
Sources
For more information on manager traits, contact:
- Karen A. Hart, RN, BSN, Senior Vice President, Health Care Division, Bernard Hodes Group, 220 E. 42nd St., 16th Floor, New York, NY 10017. Telephone: (330) 865-5988. Fax: (330) 865-5989. E-mail: [email protected].
- Carol Hiatt, RN, Nurse Administrator, Ocala Eye Surgery, 3330 S.W. 33rd Road, Ocala, FL 34474. Telephone: (352) 873-9311. Fax: (352) 873-9652. E-mail: [email protected].
- Julie Thompson, RN, MSN, CNOR, Administrative Research Coordinator, Harris County Hospital District, 1615 Hermann Drive, Suite 2115, Houston, TX 77004. Telephone: (713) 566-6473. E-mail: [email protected].
- Ann Warner, RN, MSN, CCRN, Assistant Professor, College of Nursing, McNeese State University, P.O. Box 90415, Lake Charles, LA 70609. E-mail: [email protected].
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