Did you ever know one of those people who were always smiling? When
you met that person with the smile on her face, it was probably hard
not to smile back. Whatever we put out there into the world tends to
boomerang back to us. If we are positive and happy, we tend to find
ourselves surrounded by positive, happy people. On the other hand,
if we are constantly complaining we tend to find those people who
like to complain too. This is the idea of the boomerang.

In an article entitled "Perceptions of Empowerment and Intent to
Stay," Nicole Nedd described some of the variables that are involved
in the decision making processes that nurses use when deciding
whether to stay in their current employment. She identifies two
guiding principles that help nurses determine whether they will
continue their employment. The first is opportunity, and the second
is structure of power. Opportunity refers to growth, mobility, and
the ability to increase knowledge and skills. Access to power is
described as having access to resources, information and support.
Nurses who work in organizations that value these criteria tend to
regard their employment more highly. For the staff nurse, this
should mean that these qualities of growth, mobility, access to
increasing your knowledge and skills, and the access to resources,
information and support should be rated very highly when selecting an
institution to work for. Don't get drawn in by the benefit programs
and how beautiful the lobby is but pay close attention to those
things that are going to be more likely to make you want to stay at
that institution in the long run.

For those in management and education positions, these are the
criteria that nurses are looking for. When a hospital offers huge
sign on bonuses to recruit nurses the money may sound very
attractive, but in the long run they are sending out the message that
they can buy your devotion rather than supporting you in other ways.
Look carefully at the message that you are giving to your nurses or
prospective nurses. And instead of offering a sign on bonus, it
would be more effective to use that money to provide office days for
your current staff; and offer your nurses opportunities to serve,
opportunities for decision making, and rewards for jobs well done.

Best wishes,

David W. Woodruff, MSN, RN-BC, CNS, CEN
Alumnus CCRN
President, Ed4Nurses, Inc.
www.Ed4Nurses.com