Decreasing Turnover And Burnout In Oncology Unit

Project Topic:

Decreasing burnout and turnover

Hospital, City and State:

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Winston Salem, NC

Unit:

• 9 Cancer Center-Surgical Oncology

CSI Participants:

• Rachel Cheek, ADN, RN
• Morgan Gilliam, ADN RN
• Amanda Queen ADN, RN, OCN
• Dana Wells, BSN, RN, OCN
• Ellen White, BSN, RN
• Samantha Snyder, BSN, RN, OCN Coach

Project Goals/Objectives:

1. Implement a resource nurse for both day and night shifts to with 60% of shifts covered by a resource RN
2. Decrease nursing turnover 5%
3. Decrease burnout total score 15%
4. Increase Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT) Appropriate Staffing score to 4.75

Project Outcomes:

1. 5% of shifts covered by resource RN
2. Decreased nursing turnover 50% decrease
3. Burnout score maintained below benchmark indicating high burnout
4. Increased HWEAT Appropriate Staffing to 4.84
5. These outcomes resulted in a positive estimated annual fiscal impact of $183,300.

Project Overview:

Burnout on 9CC and subsequent nursing staff turnover have been ongoing issues for some time. The problems we were facing on 9CC were a high nursing workload with many high acuity patients discharging and admitting throughout the day.

Nurses experienced frequent interruptions in daily workflow, ultimately resulting in staff becoming overwhelmed with their work. These both contributed to nursing burnout, which we believe contributes to the turnover on our floor. Our intervention was to work with management to implement a resource nurse. For this role, we envisioned someone who could circulate to aid nursing staff with their daily tasks.

We introduced the role to staff during our kickoff event that was held in January 2026. During this time, we also took suggestions for who staff thought would be a good resource nurse as well as an opportunity to apply for the position itself. The resource nurse started on the floor in February 2026.

There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the implementation of the nurse on both day and night shifts. We were able to decrease our nursing turnover by half during the time of the project. Our burnout scores stayed below the benchmark indicating high burnout. We increased our HWEAT Appropriate Staffing score. The percentage of shifts covered was smaller than we had wanted, but based on feedback, the staff was appreciative of the shifts they did have a resource nurse.