Financial Retention Strategies Associated with Nurse Aide Turnover in Ohio Nursing Homes

Abstract

Having an adequate number of workers to provide services has been a continuing challenge across the array of long-term services settings. While nursing homes, assisted living, and home care each have unique workforce challenges, the nursing home environment has individuals with the highest levels of need and they are very much dependent on nurse aides and nurses to deliver quality care. Studies consistently identify nursing home staffing as a critical component in achieving quality of care. However, nursing homes have historically experienced high rates of turnover among direct care staff, particularly nurse aides, who provide most of the direct care to residents. Not only are high turnover rates associated with lower quality, they can potentially increase costs due to recruitment expenditures and wage increases necessary to fill open positions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nursing home industry experienced a substantial increase in the proportion of nursing homes that used temporary staffing agencies, which was much more costly than internal organizational employees. In this brief, we examine financial retention strategies nursing home utilized to determine if they are associated with lower turnover rates among nurse aides.