Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Mentor

Tracy Arnold

Abstract

The Great Resignation has left an impact on the entirety of the American workforce. Coupled with the burnout rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems have been trying to find solutions to inhibit the nurse shortage. While solutions that focus on symptoms of the problem may work for a short period of time, hospitals will continue to encounter issues with staffing nurses and will need to find a new solution (Laskowskil-Jones & Castner, 2022). A possible solution would be for hospitals to recruit and retain prospective Gen Z nurses. In a quantitative study completed at a single university in rural North Carolina, a convenience sample (n=35) of prospective Gen Z nurses in their junior and senior year of an undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing program participated in the study. The study aimed to determine the expectations and importance of attributes that would influence a soon-to-be Gen Z nurse’s decision to accept a position. The Primary Investigator created a 3-question survey based on expectations found in literature: compensation/benefits, flexible hours, advancement opportunities, mentor/mentee programs, mental health support, and reward/recognition. Results indicated that prospective Gen Z nurses value compensation/benefits and flexible hours above other attributes. This does not mean that the other attributes are not important as results show that all other attributes are likely to influence the decision for accepting a position. In conclusion, healthcare should focus on recruiting by placing importance on highly valued expectations then retain the nurses by emphasizing the other important attributes.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Download

Included in

Other Nursing Commons

Share

COinS