title: [Geriatric nursing staff retention. Opportunities, potentials, and strategies].
abstract: Retaining geriatric nurses in their line of work could be an important strategy to prevent the shortage of skilled staff in the future. A prerequisite for this is detailed knowledge of the length and structure of professional careers. The IWAK ( Institut für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Kultur) evaluated data from the German Social Insurance and carried out a structural analysis of the professional careers of geriatric nurses. Results showed that the average duration of professional careers is 20 years, of which 11.7 years constitute the period of employment and 7.8 years account for periods of inactivity. According to these findings, there is a considerable potential in extending professional careers and reducing the periods of inactivity to make better use of the existing skilled staff and to reduce staff shortage in this area. Concrete measures could involve improvement of working conditions (with the aim of avoiding long periods of inactivity and illness-related premature career endings as well as of increasing job satisfaction), creating better conditions for a good balance between work and family life, as well as setting up individual strategies to expand weekly working hours. Key players are businesses but also local authorities and politicians.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Wirtschaft, Arbeit und Kultur, Zentrum der Goethe-Universität, Senckenberganlage 31, 60325, Frankfurt/Main, Deutschland. joost@soz.uni-frankfurt.de
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Joost
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005858:Germany; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*