Coaching: A Leadership Strategy for Nurse Retention

Attrition among psychiatric-mental health nurses (PMHN) threatens the safety and quality of psychiatric-mental health patient outcomes and may be related to nurse leaders lacking empowerment behaviors. Nurse leaders who demonstrate empowerment behaviors influence registered nurses' (RN) empowerment, and RNs who feel empowered are less likely to leave. Nurses who do not feel empowered experience job strain, are less satisfied with their jobs, and are likely to leave the organization. This study examined the relationship between leadership empowerment behaviors of delegation of authority, accountability, self-directed decision-making, information sharing, skills development, and coaching for innovative performance and the retention of PMHNs in their first 2 years of practice. The study used a nonexperimental correlational research design. The leader empowering behavior questionnaire (LEBQ) and turnover intention scale (TIS-6) were used to measure the variables. The study participants included 111 PMH RNs in their first 2 years of practice. Results showed that coaching for innovative performance was correlated with retention among the six leadership behaviors, with an inverse statistically significant relationship. The study findings could be used to develop PMHN leaders to coach new nurses to mitigate registered nurse turnover and impact the quality of nursing care delivery.