TY - JOUR
T1 - The Maternity Care Nurse Workforce in Rural U.S. Hospitals
AU - Henning-Smith, Carrie
AU - Almanza, Jennifer
AU - Kozhimannil, Katy B.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 AWHONN, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/5
Y1 - 2017/5
N2 - Objective To describe the maternity care nurse staffing in rural U.S. hospitals and identify key challenges and opportunities in maintaining an adequate nursing workforce. Design Cross-sectional survey study. Setting Maternity care units within rural hospitals in nine U.S. states. Participants Maternity care unit managers. Methods We calculated descriptive statistics to characterize the rural maternity care nursing workforce by hospital birth volume and nursing staff model. We used simple content analysis to analyze responses to open-ended questions and identified themes related to challenges and opportunities for maternity care nursing in rural hospitals. Results Of the 263 hospitals, 51% were low volume (<300 annual births) and 49% were high volume (≥300 annual births). Among low-volume hospitals, 78% used a shared nurse staff model. In contrast, 31% of high-volume hospitals used a shared nurse staff model. Respondents praised the teamwork, dedication, and skill of their maternity care nurses. They did, however, identify significant challenges related to recruiting nurses, maintaining adequate staffing during times of census variability, orienting and training nurses, and retaining experienced nurses. Conclusion Rural maternity care unit managers recognize the importance of nursing and have varied staffing needs. Policy implementation and programmatic support to ameliorate challenges may help ensure that an adequate nursing staff can be maintained, even in small-volume rural hospitals.
AB - Objective To describe the maternity care nurse staffing in rural U.S. hospitals and identify key challenges and opportunities in maintaining an adequate nursing workforce. Design Cross-sectional survey study. Setting Maternity care units within rural hospitals in nine U.S. states. Participants Maternity care unit managers. Methods We calculated descriptive statistics to characterize the rural maternity care nursing workforce by hospital birth volume and nursing staff model. We used simple content analysis to analyze responses to open-ended questions and identified themes related to challenges and opportunities for maternity care nursing in rural hospitals. Results Of the 263 hospitals, 51% were low volume (<300 annual births) and 49% were high volume (≥300 annual births). Among low-volume hospitals, 78% used a shared nurse staff model. In contrast, 31% of high-volume hospitals used a shared nurse staff model. Respondents praised the teamwork, dedication, and skill of their maternity care nurses. They did, however, identify significant challenges related to recruiting nurses, maintaining adequate staffing during times of census variability, orienting and training nurses, and retaining experienced nurses. Conclusion Rural maternity care unit managers recognize the importance of nursing and have varied staffing needs. Policy implementation and programmatic support to ameliorate challenges may help ensure that an adequate nursing staff can be maintained, even in small-volume rural hospitals.
KW - nursing
KW - rural
KW - workforce
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jogn.2017.01.010
DO - 10.1016/j.jogn.2017.01.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 28371619
AN - SCOPUS:85018419815
SN - 0884-2175
VL - 46
SP - 411
EP - 422
JO - JOGNN - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing
JF - JOGNN - Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing
IS - 3
ER -