Two causes, each confirmed by more than one source: a stalled day-shift list and thin night orientation account for most surgical ICU departures in the NU514 Unit 4 retention study. Searches like "nu 514 unit 4 assignment example", "nu514 unit 4 sample" and "nu514 unit 4 example" land here.
Relocation on the Form, Days in Practice: A Four-Source Retention Study of 23 Departures From a Composite Surgical ICU
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU514: Human Resources Management
Unit 4 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
All counts and survey results are composite and bracketed; no individual is identifiable. The instruments and research cited are published.
The Question
Over two years, 23 registered nurses left the unit, 21 of them voluntarily. The turnover report, built from exit interviews, attributes most departures to relocation, pay and family reasons. The unit's workforce analysis showed turnover concentrated on nights, at [34] percent against [11] percent on days. This study asks why nurses leave, using evidence other than the exit form alone.
Sources, With Their Weaknesses
Every source arrives with its weakness stated.
1. Exit interviews: completed by [17] of 21 voluntary leavers. Weakness: given to the manager the nurse is leaving, in her final week, when the most socially acceptable answer is the easiest.
2. Ninety-day calls: made by a human resources partner outside the unit's reporting line, reaching [14] of 21. Weakness: reached two-thirds of leavers, probably those who left on better terms.
3. Stay interviews: with [18] current nurses, nine on days and nine on nights, asking what keeps them and what might make them leave. Weakness: these nurses have not left, and they are speaking to someone connected to the unit.
4. Practice environment survey: the environment scale Lake (2002) derived from the Nursing Work Index, which measures nurses' views of their work environment across five subscales including staffing and resource adequacy and nurse manager ability, leadership and support; [41] of 54 nurses responded. Weakness: measures the environment, not intent to leave.
Findings Matrix
A candidate cause is treated as established only where two or more independent sources point to it.
1. Lack of access to day shifts. Exit interviews: named by [2]. Ninety-day calls: [9] of 14 reached now work days or eight-hour shifts at hospitals within thirty miles, including four who had given relocation as their exit reason. Stay interviews: [8] of 9 night nurses named getting off nights as the change most likely to keep them; the day list has moved [four] times in three years. Survey: not measured directly. Status: established, three sources.
2. New graduates entering nights underprepared. Exit interviews: [2] mentioned feeling unsupported. Ninety-day calls: [4] of the 6 new graduates who left within a year described being placed on nights after few shifts with a night preceptor. Stay interviews: [5] of 9 night nurses described precepting as heavy and unplanned. Survey: staffing and resource adequacy scored lowest on nights, [2.1] against [2.8] on days on a four-point scale. Status: established, four sources.
3. Pay. Exit interviews: named by [3]. Ninety-day calls: [1] reached said pay was the main reason; two who cited pay took jobs at similar or lower pay. Stay interviews: pay raised by [2] of 18, never first. Survey: not measured. Status: not established; appears in one source only.
4. Manager support. Exit interviews: not raised. Ninety-day calls: [2] mentioned it. Stay interviews: mixed. Survey: nurse manager subscale [2.9], near the hospital average. Status: not established.
5. Relocation. Exit interviews: named by [7]. Ninety-day calls: of the 7, [4] took jobs within thirty miles. Status: partly true for [three] nurses; not supported for four.
Two Causes, Two Mechanisms
The unit loses experienced nurses because they cannot get off nights, and it loses new graduates because nights arrive before they are ready; the exit forms record neither.
The first mechanism concerns experienced night nurses. The day list is seniority-based and moves only when a day nurse leaves, which happens rarely. A night nurse with four years on the unit can expect to wait several more years. Nurses who want days, often because of children or health, find them elsewhere within a short drive.
The second concerns new graduates, and it is analyzed separately because its mechanism differs. Five of the six new graduates who left within a year had started on nights, most after fewer than six shifts with a night preceptor. Duchscher (2009) calls the first months of practice transition shock, a time when new nurses feel overwhelmed and unsure of their competence; nights intensify it, with fewer experienced colleagues, no educators and higher patient-to-experienced-nurse ratios. Across the hospitals in a multistate transition study, new nurses in well-structured programs were less likely to leave and reported fewer negative safety practices than those in weaker programs (Spector et al., 2015).
Why the Exit Forms Mislead
Turnover research warns that a departure usually has several causes and that the method of counting them colors the conclusion (Hayes et al., 2012). The exit form asks a nurse leaving her manager to choose one reason from a list. Relocation and pay are respectable reasons; "I could not get off nights" sounds like a complaint about colleagues who hold day positions. The form is not wrong so much as incomplete, and it biases the report toward causes the unit cannot address.
What Current Night Nurses Said They Would Stay For
The stay interviews added something the departure data could not: what would keep the nurses who are still here. Night nurses gave three answers most often. First, a predictable path to days, even if it took time, as long as the time was known. Second, relief from precepting on consecutive shifts, which several described as the part of nights they found most draining. Third, one experienced colleague on every night who was not carrying a full assignment, a resource nurse or a charge nurse without patients, so that a new nurse's question did not pull someone away from her own patients. None of the nine named pay as the change most likely to keep them.
Recommendations
1. Day-shift access: guarantee a share of day shifts, for example one in four, to night nurses after two years on nights, and publish the day list's movement quarterly.
2. New graduate placement: keep new graduates on days for their first six months, and require a set number of shifts with a named night preceptor before any independent night.
3. Measurement: move exit interviews to a human resources partner outside the unit, keep ninety-day calls, and hold stay interviews with night nurses twice a year.
Limits
Twenty-three departures over two years is a small number, and some findings rest on a handful of nurses. Ninety-day calls missed a third of leavers. Stay interviews and survey results describe current staff, who may differ from those who left. The study establishes consistent patterns across sources, not causes in a strict sense.
References
Duchscher, J. E. B. (2009). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated registered nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(5), 1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04898.x
Hayes, L. J., O'Brien-Pallas, L., Duffield, C., Shamian, J., Buchan, J., Hughes, F., Laschinger, H. K. S., & North, N. (2012). Nurse turnover: A literature review, an update. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 49(7), 887-905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2011.10.001
Lake, E. T. (2002). Development of the practice environment scale of the Nursing Work Index. Research in Nursing and Health, 25(3), 176-188. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.10032
Spector, N., Blegen, M. A., Silvestre, J., Barnsteiner, J., Lynn, M. R., Ulrich, B., Fogg, L., & Alexander, M. (2015). Transition to practice study in hospital settings. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 5(4), 24-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(15)30031-4
How this NU514 Unit 4 example is structured
Evidence precedes causes, and the study's order makes that visible. Every source arrives with its weakness stated: exit interviews given to the manager a nurse is leaving, calls that reached two-thirds of leavers, stay interviews with people who have not left, a survey measuring environment rather than intent. The matrix then treats a cause as established only where two or more independent sources point to it, which rules pay out despite three exit forms naming it. First-year departures are analyzed separately because their mechanism differs: five of the six new graduates who left started on nights with few shifts precepted by a night nurse. Staffing and resource adequacy scored lowest of the scale's five subscales, 2.18 of 4, and lower still on nights. The study closes by stating what it cannot establish.
Get an NU514 Unit 4 example written to your instructions
Exit reasons, a survey summary, counts by shift or tenure, or simply what colleagues said after leaving: departure evidence in any form helps. A first model study is free. Send the evidence with the Unit 4 prompt and rubric, and within 24-48h it comes back with every cause tested against more than one source. Conclusions about your unit are yours to draw. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
NU514 Unit 4 questions, answered
What is the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index?
A survey instrument developed by Eileen Lake and published in 2002, widely used in nursing workforce research. Its 31 items form five subscales: nurse participation in hospital affairs, nursing foundations for quality of care, nurse manager ability and support, staffing and resource adequacy, and collegial nurse-physician relations. The sample reports subscale means rather than one total, since the subscales point toward different causes.
What if exit interview data is all I can get?
Then use it, and say plainly what it can and cannot show. Coded exit reasons still reveal patterns by shift, tenure or season, and those patterns can be compared with scheduling or staffing records the unit already holds. The sample's strongest move, checking stated reasons against where people went next, is sometimes possible informally. What rubrics penalize is presenting stated reasons as proven causes.
Why is pay set aside when three nurses named it?
It is tested rather than set aside, and it proves weaker. Only one source supports it, and a market comparison places the unit's base rates within 2 percent of two nearby hospitals. The sample reports that result and notes that pay could still matter to particular individuals. A retention study earns credit for following the evidence even when a popular explanation does not hold up.