What Are Stay Interviews in Nursing? Facility Guide and FAQ
Hiring and retaining skilled nursing staff is crucial for delivering high quality care. But with the average registered nurse (RN) turnover rate standing at nearly 20%, it’s clear that better measures are needed to support nursing professionals in their roles. Stay interviews — where leadership facilitates question and answer-driven conversations that determine why an employee is choosing to remain within their role — can be a valuable way to unpack and prevent potential causes of turnover.
If you’re a facility leader looking to implement this helpful feedback tool, this article is for you. With answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about these retention-minded conferences (and tips on how to conduct them), your organization will be better prepared to actively invest in keeping top talent, strengthening workplace culture and the quality of your patient care.
What Is a Stay Interview? Purpose and Overview
A stay interview is a meeting between a manager and employee, aimed at understanding what’s making an employee stay at an organization and what might cause them to leave. The purpose of these interviews is to get ahead of any potential issues before they lead to turnover. Through this process, managers are able to learn about the first-hand experiences of their staff, which then informs actions that can be taken to improve retention.
What Are Stay Interviews’ Relevance to Healthcare Facilities?
Healthcare is an industry where turnover rates are monumentally high. Because of this, many floor managers conduct stay interviews to improve retention among their nurses. So, how exactly does a one-on-one meeting lead to better retention? Below are some of the proven benefits of conducting a diagnostic retention interview.
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Improves Nurse Satisfaction |
Engaging nurses in important conversations makes them feel heard and valued. An interview about retention showcases strong leadership and a commitment to supporting staff, which leads to increased nurse satisfaction. |
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Strengthens Relationships |
Stay-minded discussions allow for more open, collaborative, and meaningful communication. This fosters a positive work environment and increases trust between nursing staff and their leaders. |
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Proactively Addresses Issues |
They give nurses a vehicle for sharing individualized needs and concerns. Through in-depth, one-on-one conversations, leaders can stay on top of what’s affecting their staff before major issues arise. |
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Informs Influential Policies |
Stay interview questions and answers allow leaders to gain valuable insights that might otherwise never come to light. This improves shared-decision making and strengthens institutional policies through nurse-driven input. |
Who Should Conduct Stay Interviews?
In general, direct leadership (such as the nurse manager) is best suited to conduct these interviews. Alongside their familiarity, they’re best suited to implement any feedback and respond to nursing concerns faster than personnel who work from a broader, less-ground level operational view.
However, in instances of alarming turnover rates or a spike in reported dissatisfaction, outside help from human resources or more senior leadership (like the chief wellness officer) may expedite remediation measures.
Stay Interviews: Questions and Answers for Nurses
Fundamentally, interviews for staff retention should focus on the employee experience. It’s important to ask thoughtful and open-ended questions that explore reasons for staying and leaving. To help you get a sense of how these conferences can be used in practice, we’ll break down a couple of real-world questions for stay interviews. Examples also feature follow-up prompt considerations.
Example 1: If you were contacted by a prospective applicant who wanted to learn more about our unit, what reasons would you give them to work here?
This is an example of a question exploring a nurse’s reasons to stay. Beyond simply asking what they like about their job, this provides a more personalized scenario that encourages the nurse to really reflect on the positive aspects of their work environment.
What to listen for:
- Support modalities, team dynamics, and cultural factors that facilitate the nurse’s work
- Development opportunities that contribute to fulfillment and continuous growth
- Tools, resources, or benefits that contribute to work-life balance and satisfaction
Potential follow-up questions:
- What aspects of our work environment help you deliver your best care?
- What makes you feel valued and appreciated for the work that you do?
- What is your favorite thing about working with your current team and supervisors?
Example 2: In the past year, have there been times when you lacked the tools, resources, or support needed to deliver proper care? If so, can you share what might have helped you in those moments?
This is an example of a question exploring potential factors that might influence nurses to leave. This question prompts them to think back to what barriers or issues have impacted their day-to-day work. It also invites the nurse to share more specific examples of what could help address these issues.
What to listen for:
- Resource shortages or aspects of management that negatively impact the nurse
- Work factors that contribute to feelings of frustration, stress, or burnout
- Actionable changes that could address issues and improve the nurse’s experience
Potential follow-up questions:
- How have management and your team responded to these recent challenges?
- Have any of these challenges that you’ve faced affected your views on working here?
- Have your colleagues faced similar issues and challenges?
How Do You Conduct a Stay Interview? 3 Tips for Leaders
As you develop your retention-geared interviewing program, you’ll want to ensure a specialized approach, rather than falling back on the strategies from more familiar meetings (like performance evaluations). Here are three practical tips to help you get the most out of a stay interview with your nursing team.
1. Schedule Meetings in a Comfortable and Private Setting
Invite your nurses to talk in a private location so that they can share their thoughts more openly. Be clear that the interview will remain confidential and the information they share won’t be used against them. Additionally, make sure to schedule the interview at a convenient time that doesn’t add to the stress of their workload.
2. Ask Open-Ended Questions and Actively Listen
These interviews are an opportunity for your staff to relay as many thoughts as they’re comfortable sharing. Prepare thought-provoking questions that allow staff to candidly reflect on their experiences. Give them time and space, and make sure you’re actively listening to what they’re saying, rather than trying to fit your own thoughts in.
3. Maintain a Continuous Feedback Loop
Remember that the purpose of a stay interview is to inform actions that can help improve retention. Once you gather feedback from your nurses, act on it in a timely manner and keep your nurses in the loop. If they’ve contributed to positive changes, acknowledge and celebrate their contributions. Additionally, if some things still need improvement, make sure you continue to gather feedback from your staff to make necessary refinements.
Keep Your Nursing Staff Satisfied in Their Roles
Implementing these recommendations is one way to ensure productive stay interviews. Best practices for improving nurse engagement go beyond these practical conversations, though. For additional strategies, our wide range of facility guides offer numerous staffing tips designed to help you retain your top talent.