Attracting nursing talent to the intensive care unit: A qualitative study on how to create an appealing work environment.

Abstract

Introduction and objective: The global shortage of nurses who want to work in the intensive care unit (ICU) is alarming, putting at risk quality of care and patient safety. With efforts put into engagement strategies, optimized recruitment programmes are scarce, specifically in the ICU setting. The aim of this study is to describe and explore ICU nurses' opinions on their work motivational factors that influenced the decision to work in the ICU setting.

Design: A qualitative research was undertaken, with a descriptive exploratory interpretative approach, implementing a QUAL-QUAL design, where two data collection techniques are used simultaneously and complement each other. Experienced ICU nurses were interviewed by focus group, using in-depth interviews for novel nurses. A template content analysis as described by the model of Brooks was performed.

Setting: The selected population was recruited from 6 different public hospitals in Spain.

Findings: A total of 17 nurses participated in the study as we reached data saturation; seven in the focus group and ten by individual interviews. Four main themes emerged from the analysis divided into 13 subthemes: "ICU training and education", "taking care of the intensive carer", "optimized human resources management" and "intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors".

Conclusion: Nurses consider that an attractive ICU in terms of job satisfaction is the one that is committed to quality continuous training programmes, welcoming professionals with well-designed mentoring, and taking care of its workers by promoting teamwork and work-life balance, burnout syndrome prevention strategies and motivation for intellectual development.

Implications for clinical practice: The description of how to create attractive ICUs will help to build strategies with the aim of recruiting talented highly qualified professionals who will alleviate the need for nurses in the field, optimizing the care provided and generating benefits in management and quality of care.