Best Practice Case Study: A Career at the Bedside

Looking to combat nursing staff turnover, Mercy Medical Center – Dubuque established a retention model program that is receiving national press as well as replication consideration from Mercy Medical Center in Clinton, Iowa and others across the Trinity Health system.

In "Celebrating the Journey - From Novice to Expert," MMC Dubuque recognized that nurses sometimes accepted management promotions for the higher pay, even though they would rather have remained in direct patient care.

To address the issue, Dubuque developed a career model where nurses can stay at the bedside and still receive recognition for increases in their experience and practice. In it, nurses move through five stages of expertise and receive accompanying pay raises – all without forsaking patient care for management.

To be promoted, nurses must write narratives to show they've reached the next career "stage" in areas such as clinical knowledge, patient care, and collaboration. They present the narratives to panels of their peers. Giving nurses new challenges is a way to keep them engaged, resulting in richer experiences for nurses as well as those for whom they care.