CSI Project

Creating Resiliency and Improving Retention Among Nurses

Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts)

CSI Summary

Available only to registered AACN.org users.

Summary

CSI Presentation

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Presentation

CSI Toolkit

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Toolkit

Added to Collection

Project Topic

Promoting resiliency in an environment prone to moral distress and improving nurse retention

Hospital Unit

Multidisciplinary Intensive Care Unit – Blake 12

CSI Participants

Brittany Barron, MSN, RN
Catherine Cusack, BSN, RN, CCRN
Laura Lux, MS, RN, CCRN
Victoria Patterson MS, RN, CNL, CCRN

Project Goals/Objectives

  1. Improve job enjoyment
  2. Improve RN retention
  3. Create a culture of resiliency

Project Outcomes

  1. Increased overall job enjoyment from 79% to 92%
  2. Increased RN-specific job satisfaction from 69.4% to 92.5%
  3. Decreased full-time RN unit-specific turnover from 44.4% in 2018 to 17.5% in 2019
  4. Increased overall summary score in the Healthy Work Environment Survey from 3.61 to 3.90
  5. Decreased staff-reported moral distress 69.6%
  6. These outcomes resulted in an estimated annual fiscal impact of $781,500 and a return on investment of 3,744%.

Project Overview

Our multidisciplinary intensive care unit lacked a clear recruitment and retention plan, placing staff at risk for unrecognized compassion fatigue, moral distress and lack of joy in work — all of which subsequently increased nurse turnover. Our CSI team introduced a resiliency bundle to help address these issues; components included the critical care technician (CCT) helper, registered nurse (RN) helper, improved break coverage, a fishbowl for recognition of staff and unit-based resiliency rounds.

Permission to Reuse Materials
The materials associated with this AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy project are the property of the participating hospital noted above, not AACN. Requests to use content contained in the CSI team’s summary, presentation or toolkit should be directed to the hospital. We suggest reaching out to the hospital’s Communications, Marketing or Nursing Education department for assistance.

Disclaimer
The AACN CSI Academy program supports change projects based on quality improvement methods. Although CSI teams seek to ensure linkage between their project and clinical/fiscal outcomes, data cannot be solely attributed to the project and are estimations of impact.