This study explored the low retention rates of childcare workers at a military child development center in the northeast United States. The purpose of this case study was to explore the work experiences of childcare employees during their first year of employment at a child development center to discover the factors that influenced their decision to resign. The conceptual framework that guided this study was a 2-factor approach of motivator and hygiene factors associated with experiences and perceptions. Transcripts from interviews with 15 current and prior childcare workers and management team members were coded, triangulated, and thematically analyzed. The themes developed from the interview data revealed key factors that contributed to childcare workers' positive and negative work experiences, such as pay and benefits, professional development and training requirements, and lack of support for novice childcare workers. The results of this study led to a position paper recommending that stakeholders implement a 3-day mentoring program to address the issue of resignation among first-year childcare workers. The mentoring program could lead to social change by increasing positive work experiences, knowledge base of first-year childcare workers, and worker retention rates at military child development centers.

Graduate nurses beginning their nursing career require a collaborative relationship with an expert nurse mentor to make this transition successful. However, high turnover among these experienced nurse mentors is causing a problematic gap in knowledge transfer, experience, and expertise in the nursing workforce. This project investigated whether nurse mentors who mentored in a Nurse Residency Program (NRP) remained with the organization longer and were more satisfied with their mentoring experience than nurse mentors who mentored outside of a NRP. The diffusion of innovations theory was used to support the project and process of dispersing information on the outcome of the project. Sources of evidence for the project included case-cohort studies, systematic reviews obtained via an exhaustive literature review, and the collection of nurse mentor retention and satisfaction data through the use of a cross-sectional survey. Data were assessed from 214 registered nurses at a hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota and divided into 2 groups: nurse mentor and NRP mentor. When compared to nurse mentors, 10% more NRP mentors reported being employed in their current position with the intent to remain employed for 10 or more years as well as being very satisfied with their mentorship experience, supporting the project question. This project substantiates the need for experienced nurse mentors to prepare new graduate nurses coming into the profession. Contribution to positive social change is as a result of mentorship in nursing that functions as a means of retaining both new graduate and experienced nurses simultaneously.

Attrition of nursing students has a negative impact on students, university nursing programs, and the heath care community. At a local university, the nursing program and its stakeholders aspire to increase retention of nursing students in order to mitigate the nursing shortage projected over the next decade. The purpose of this study was to examine issues related to high attrition of 1st- and 2nd-year nursing students at a university located in the mid-Atlantic area of the United States. Tinto's model of retention was used as the foundation to explore variables affecting 1st- and 2nd-year nursing students who remained in (n = 30) or left (n = 10 ) the program. This quantitative, cross-sectional research study explored the root causes of nursing student attrition. A Likert-scale survey was used to gather quantitative data to determine student perceptions of academic expectations and nonacademic issues such as work and stress that may increase the risk of attrition. Discriminant analysis determined that reported levels of self-efficacy, perceived faculty support, outcome expectations, and bullying significantly discriminated between program persisters and leavers. Based upon these findings it is concluded that nursing faculty and administrators can increase student retention by increasing students' level of self-efficacy by providing greater support and reducing instances of bullying. Implementation of these practices may result in more students remaining in school, graduating, and competently serving the needs of patients, thus resulting in positive social change.

Retention of first-year students was a problem at a private 4-year university in the Southeastern United States. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the reasons entering first-year students who were part of the Promise Program withdrew from the university during their first year. Tinto's model of student attrition provided the conceptual framework for the study. Research questions addressed students' rationale for selecting the school, their perspectives on the main causes of first-year attrition, their expectations of campus support services, and their recommendations for how to decrease student attrition. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 7 students from the spring 2016 and fall 2016 semesters. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using manual coding and coding software. Findings indicated that students' sense of belonging was the most influential factor in their decision to withdraw from college. Recommendations included a training program for administrators and staff on customer service techniques. This study can bring positive social change to the profession by seeking out systemic changes to promote entering freshmen's college completion. Conclusively, the implications of positive social change is most benefical to students when more students are able to earn a degree, and better their livelihood. The university would benefit by graduating more students and the success of their college graduates could be seen as their own success of addressing student's social and academic needs. Finally, the positive social change for externalities would benefit from the investment in human beings and human capital as a critical input for change and innovations to society.

Voluntary employee turnover is a concern for nonprofit leaders due to human capital's strategic role in achieving performance excellence. The consequences of volunteer turnover include loss of profitability, productivity, knowledge, and financial stability. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore strategies used by 3 leaders of a nonprofit organization in the Washington, DC, area who have experience with the nonprofit's employee retention efforts. Data were collected from semistructured face-to-face interviews and organizational documentation and analyzed through the conceptual lens of Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. Data gathered from interviews and analyses of organizational data and performance outcomes were manually coded and thematically organized. The use of member checking the data and methodological triangulation increased the trustworthiness of data interpretation and the study. Three key themes emerged: (a) training and development, (b) advancement opportunities, and (c) strategic leadership. Through analysis of data collected for this study, nonprofit leaders can assess their employees' development needs and provide training to support their growth. Nonprofit leaders may support their employees' development by creating a career path by aligning tenure with advancement and formal training. Nonprofit leaders' actions and decisions affect workforce commitment. Nonprofit employees are intrinsically motivated to create positive social change and make an impact on nonprofits' stakeholders via programs and services. Nonprofit leaders can use this study to improve retention strategies, ensure their employees' wellbeing, and contribute to positive social change by assisting employees in ensuring stakeholder wellbeing.

The United States has a nursing shortage that is projected to grow to over 500,000 by the year 2030. This is an issue for leaders because the nursing shortage affects health care organizations sustainability. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive phenomenological study was to identify and report the lived experiences of new graduate nurses (NGNs) in oncology and whether unit of first choice (UFC) effected their intention to remain after 2 years of practice. The research question considered the lived experiences of NGNs in oncology units who either had oncology as their UFC or were placed on an oncology unit even though oncology was not their UFC during their first 2 years. The framework theories that provided a lens were Herzberg'€™s motivational hygiene, Burns'€™ transformational leadership theory and von Bertalanffy'€™s general systems theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews attaining data saturation with 10 NGNs in Central Florida. Data analysis involved using hand-coding and NVivo 12 Plus. The findings revealed the negative impacts of the nursing shortage, cycle of nurse turnover in oncology, positive and negative experiences in oncology, and reducing turnover and increasing NGN retention in oncology. Application of the findings of this study by nursing leaders may improve new graduate nurse hiring practices and retention, as leaders consider the result that unit of first choice has on NGN retention. Retaining NGNs could result in a positive social impact by lowering hospital employment costs, improving community stability, making health care more affordable to the community, and reducing medical errors.

Retention of 1st-year students is a challenge facing higher education and remains relevant for all stakeholders. Low persistence negatively affects individual students, institutions, and society as a whole. Nationally, a significant number of students have reported working while in college, particularly 1st-generation, low socioeconomic status (SES), and racial and ethnic minority students, those same groups who are at higher risk of experiencing low retention rates. Guided by Tinto's interactionalist model of student departure, binary logistic regression analyses of archival data were used in this retrospective prediction study. The focus was to determine how on-campus employment (OCE), 1st-generation, low-SES, and racial and ethnic minority student status were related to retention to the 2nd year for 1,582 first-time full-time students who entered a 4 year institution in the fall semesters of 2013 to 2015. Students who worked on campus during their 1st year of college were nearly twice as likely to be retained as those students who did not work on campus. Although living on campus was found to be a significant predictor of retention for students who did not work on campus during their 1st year in college, it was not a significant predictor of retention for students who did work on campus. Based on the findings, a white paper was developed, recommending that student employment practices on campus be modified such that 1st-year students, especially those who may not be living on campus, be made more aware of OCE opportunities. Creating a better understanding of the role OCE plays in student retention has positive social change implications for students, faculty members, staff members, and administrators needing to make informed decisions that increase student retention.

It is well established that such student precollege cognitive measures as high school GPA and test scores (ACT, SAT) have a certain predictive value in student retention. While research is replete with evidence of the value of student advising in a college’s retention strategy, there is a gap in the literature on the impact of using noncognitive survey information by advisors to better target student deficiencies. The primary goal of this study was to explore the relationship between retention and exposure to noncognitive risk factor information for students and advisors. One thousand fifty-four freshmen students enrolled in a first-year experience (FYE) course at Dixie State College were given the Student Strengths Inventory (SSI) survey that measures six different noncognitive risk factor variables. By using a regression discontinuity design, students were initially divided into two sample groups using an index score generated by combining the high school GPA and ACT (or equivalent) test score. Students who fell below the cutoff point were further subdivided by random sampling into three groups: (a) students who received their survey results with no further action, (b) students selected for general advisement, and (c) students selected for targeted advisement using the survey results. When comparing the retention rates from fall semester 2009 to fall semester 2010, the retention rates varied as predicted by the researcher; however, these differences in retention could not be attributed to the usage of the survey with one exception: when the treatment group was filtered only to include first-generation students, usage of the survey results was statistically significant in contributing to a 62% retention rate, the highest of any of the sample groups studied.

The relationship between customer satisfaction and firm profitability has received varying attention in the research literature. Customer satisfaction itself has been thoroughly investigated and a number of possible attributes identified. A linkage between customer satisfaction and repurchase intention has been shown to exist, though little research has been completed on actual repurchase, while recent research has shown a linkage between customer retention and revenue. If the research on these component parts is added together, it suggests a direct linkage between attributes of customer satisfaction and firm revenue, implying that firm revenue may be increased by identifying and improving key attributes of customer satisfaction.

This inquiry investigated the phenomenon of 'staying' as a feature of the turnover, recruitment and retention of social workers in hospital settings. In the absence of specific literature on the subject, the study made a significant and original contribution to knowledge about social work staff turnover, including the meaning attached to work, the relationship of social workers to the hospital organisation, and to job satisfaction. Using qualitative methodology, data were collected from multiple sources including in-depth interviews at two large Sydney Teaching Hospitals, a period of engagement in each Social Work Department, a comprehensive review of primary data from archival records of the Directors of Social Work Services in Teaching Hospitals (NSW) between 1981-1999, and secondary source materials of federal and state health policy documents. Two core categories emerged from the study which were social workers 'tolerance' of the hospital environment and their qualities of 'selfactualisation'. Of central importance to the inquiry was the discovery of grounded theory which explained the relationship of these categories to the phenomenon of 'staying'. The intersection of 'tolerance' and 'self- actualisation' qualified 'staying' as either a positive or negative experience for the social worker and the hospital. This theory was presented as an original model which with further refinement, could be used as a predictive tool in studies of turnover of social workers in hospital settings. The findings challenged existing theories that staff retention was preferable to staff turnover in hospital organisations and identified qualities in hospital social workers which would ensure the continuing relevance of social work to the changing hospital environment. The model has implications for hospitals, Social Work Departments and for social work education in the preparation and training of social workers to join the hospital workforce. Specific activities that supported the 'self-actualisation' of social workers, and aspects of 'tolerance' were identified which worked for the benefit of both social workers and hospitals.