Towards a Better Understanding of Long-term Economic Impacts Associated with Human Factors Improvements in Healthcare: Examining Causes and Consequences of Nurse Turnover

Abstract

Human factors experts working in healthcare often worry about proving the worth of their projects and may struggle to convince leadership of the true payoff when considering higher costs associated with better and more usable products. This project attempts to address this problem by investigating the nuanced direct and indirect costs that can arise from failing to provide a safe and satisfying work environment for staff. Specifically, we investigated the causes and consequences of nurse turnover. With the central hypothesis that the true cost of nurse turnover has been undervalued, we reviewed previous research and mapped factors of nurse turnover in a logic model to identify the most important connections and potential gaps in current research.