June 2022
What‘s next for Nursing Leaders? Brain Drain

Brain drain: A loss of the collective wisdom, lore, relationships, community and culture embodied by the leader of organizations. As our leaders transition to other organizations, roles or the vocation altogether, we are left with a void. We can easily underestimate the risk of this void when an individual leaves.  However, historically it is a trickle here and there, aka normal annualized attrition. Organizations are tilted toward that behavior and largely it goes unnoticed. What happens when the majority leaves? In a very short period? Certainly we will resolve our current clinical nursing staffing challenges, but what about a leadership staffing crisis? That is an organizational risk that we have not tested but has significant potential impact. That risk is salient, and it may be far more profound than we anticipate, and it‘s on our collective horizon.

If there is one thing that we have learned from the last few years of unplanned upheaval of pandemic response, vaccine retaliation and staffing...it is that now is the time to prepare for future risks, before they gain traction. This is true even if they are hard to conceptualize or quantify. Just the mere knowledge that the data clearly shows an impending event of this magnitude should be more than enough for Leaders to start the dialog and movement toward preparing to mitigate potential impacts. Where to start? Check the June Member Newsletter in the Time Well Spent section for resources on nurse retention.

You are the faces of courage, grace and grit.

-cmw