Resource Library

Charting the Course for Nurses’ Achievement of Higher Education Levels

To improve patient outcomes and meet the challenges of the U.S. health care system, the Institute of Medicine recommends higher educational attainment for the nursing workforce. Characteristics of registered nurses (RNs) who pursue additional education are poorly understood, and this information is critical to planning long-term strategies for U.S. nursing education. 2012 Kovner, C. T., […]


Work Environment Factors Other Than Staffing Associated With Nurses’ Ratings of Patient Care Quality

The impact of registered nurse (RN) staffing on patient care quality has been extensively studied. Identifying additional modifiable work environment factors linked to patient care quality is critical as the projected shortage of approximately 250,000 RNs over the next 15 years will limit institutions’ ability to rely on RN staffing alone to ensure high-quality care. […]


New Nurses: Has the Recession Increased Their Commitment To Their Jobs?

2012 Current evidence suggests that the economic recession has induced retired RNs to reenter nursing and working nurses to work more hours and delay retirement, thus easing the projected RN shortage. We wondered whether the economic downturn had affected new nurses’ work attitudes and behaviors, including those related to turnover. Brewer, C. S., Kovner, C. […]


State Mandatory Overtime Regulations and Newly Licensed Nurses’ Mandatory and Voluntary Overtime and Total Work Hours

* Winner of Nursing Outlook’s Excellence in Policy Award Nurse overtime has been used to handle normal variations in patient census and to control chronic understaffing. By 2010, 16 states had regulations to limit nurse overtime. We examined mandatory overtime regulations and their association with mandatory and voluntary overtime and total hours worked by newly […]


Predictors of Actual Turnover In A National Sample of Newly Licensed Registered Nurses Employed In Hospitals

2012 There is a large body of research related to nursing retention; however, there is little information specific to newly licensed registered nurse turnover. Incidence rates of turnover among new nurses are unknown because most turnover data are not from nationally representative samples of nurses. Brewer, C. S., Kovner, C. T., Greene, W., Tukov-Shuser, M., […]


Early Career RNs’ Perceptions of Quality Care In The Hospital Setting

2011 The purpose of this study was to explore early-career registered nurses’ perceptions of high-quality nursing care in hospitals. The study findings contribute to ongoing work intended to explore and define what quality nursing care is and how it ultimately impacts patients. The final sample analyzed for this article consisted of 171 narrative responses from […]


Newly Licensed RNs Describe What They Like Best About Being A Nurse

About 25% of newly licensed registered nurses (NLRNs) leave their first job within two years, but only 2% leave the nursing profession in this same timeframe. Therefore, the researchers sought to discover what new nurses like best about being a nurse, in hopes of gaining information that might help facilities to reduce turnover rates. Data […]


The Relative Geographic Immobility Of New Registered Nurses Calls For New Strategies To Augment That Workforce

Little is known about registered nurses’ geographic mobility after they earn their first professional degree and become licensed to practice. Through a cross-sectional mailed survey of newly-licensed registered nurses in 15 states, the researchers found that 52.5 percent work within 40 miles of where they attended high school. Researcher’s analysis of Census Bureau data shows […]


Commuting to Work: RN Travel Time to Employment in Rural and Urban Areas

In the newly licensed registered nurses, rural nurses and those living in small towns had significantly longer average commute times. Young married RNs and RNs with children also tended to have longer commute times, as did RNs employed by hospitals. The findings indicate that travel time to work varies significantly across locale types. Further research […]


Generational Differences among Newly Licensed Registered Nurses

Responses of 2 369 newly licensed registered nurses from 3 generational cohorts—Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y—were studied to identify differences in their characteristics, work-related experiences, and attitudes. These responses revealed significant differences among generations in: job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work motivation, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, distributive justice, promotional opportunities, supervisory support, mentor support, procedural […]