title: A literature review of nursing turnover costs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report the findings of a literature review of studies examining nursing staff turnover costs published between 1990 and 2010.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Nurse turnover is a global concern that is both costly for health-care organizations and, in the context of the work environment, affects quality and safety.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We reviewed past literature and describe the conceptualization of nurse turnover, evaluate the methodologies and calculation of costs, identify the reported range of turnover costs and provide suggestions for future study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We report inconsistencies in past studies in terms of the conceptualization and measurement of nurse turnover and turnover rates, the methodologies for gathering data and the data sources used, the approaches for calculating turnover costs and the resulting nursing staff turnover costs estimated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Past studies reached different conclusions about nurse turnover. We still need to explore the actual costs and benefits of nurse turnover and retention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study should be helpful for nurse executives as they build a business case to address nurse turnover in their organizations, and for policy-makers as they develop policies about turnover.
authors: School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460, USA. yinl@email.unc.edu
authors: Yin
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: Cheryl B
authors: CB
authors: Jones
mesh_terms: D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D015401:Nursing Administration Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010563:Personnel Turnover / Q000191:economics*; D011787:Quality of Health Care