NURS 625 Week 6 Strategic Planning Group Project: Outline and Annotated Bibliography Example

Strategic Planning Group Project Outline and Annotated Bibliography: A Retention Plan for Late-Career Registered Nurses at Cumberland Valley Health

Strategic Plan Outline

This outline sets out the elements our group will develop into the full strategic plan for Cumberland Valley Health in Week 7. It builds on the topic selection, which chose a human resources goal: keeping registered nurses aged 55 and older from leaving earlier than they intend. The sections follow the order our strategic planning textbook recommends for a health care plan, moving from direction and assessment to objectives, strategies, resources and evaluation. Every strategy in Section VI traces to at least one of the six studies annotated below, so the plan asks the executive team to fund only what the evidence supports. The figures in the internal assessment come from the system's most recent workforce report and exit interview summary.

I. Executive Summary

• Purpose: cut early, voluntary exits by RNs 55 and over by 30% within 24 months
• Scope: inpatient, perioperative and emergency nurses across three hospitals
• Expected return: about $640,000 in avoided replacement costs per year at target

II. Alignment With Mission and Vision

• Mission commitment to compassionate, expert care in the Cumberland Valley
• Nursing division vision of a workforce in which experience is passed on, not lost
• Christian view of work as a calling and of elders as a source of wisdom

III. Environmental Assessment

• Internal: 31% of RNs aged 55 or older; 61 departures in this group last year, 38 earlier than planned
• Internal: exit themes of physical workload, rigid twelve-hour shifts and feeling undervalued
• External: aging national workforce, competition from outpatient employers, state retirement eligibility rules

IV. SWOT Analysis

• Strengths: loyal long-tenured staff, an existing preceptor program, an engaged chief nursing officer
• Weaknesses: no flexible shift options, no phased retirement policy, limited lift equipment on older units
• Opportunities: virtual nursing and mentoring roles, a regional college partnership for clinical faculty
• Threats: retirement plan changes, a tight labor market, physician practices recruiting experienced nurses

V. Goal and Objectives

• Goal: retain the clinical expertise of late-career registered nurses
• Objective 1: offer 4-, 6- and 8-hour shift options on all inpatient units within 6 months
• Objective 2: launch a phased retirement policy with protected benefits within 9 months
• Objective 3: fill 24 legacy roles (preceptor, resource, virtual mentor) within 12 months
• Objective 4: train all nurse managers in compassionate leadership within 12 months

VI. Strategies

• Flexible scheduling with self-scheduling software and short-shift options
• Phased retirement with pro-rated benefits and a guaranteed return path
• Legacy roles that move expertise away from heavy lifting and toward teaching
• Workload and ergonomic support, including ceiling lifts on the two oldest units
• Recognition through an annual expertise award and visible career milestones

VII. Resources and Budget

• Ceiling lifts: $310,000 one time; scheduling software: $48,000 per year
• Legacy role differential: $3 per hour for 24 nurses
• Leadership training: $36,000; project coordinator at 0.5 FTE

VIII. Implementation Timeline

• Months 1 to 3: policy drafting, union and human resources review, manager training begins
• Months 4 to 9: short shifts, phased retirement and first legacy roles launched
• Months 10 to 24: lift installation, full legacy cohort, quarterly review

IX. Evaluation

• Early departures among RNs 55 and older, by quarter
• Intent to stay at 2 years on the annual engagement survey, by age group
• Legacy role fill rate and new graduate first-year retention on units with legacy mentors

X. Communication Plan

• Town halls at each hospital led by the chief nursing officer
• Individual career conversations for every nurse aged 55 and older within 6 months
• Quarterly progress dashboard posted on each unit

Annotated Bibliography

Chen, C., Napier, S., Holroyd, E., & Shannon, K. (2026). Organisational support for older nurses' continuation of practice: A qualitative interpretive descriptive study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 184, Article 105700. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2026.105700

Chen et al. (2026) asked how older registered nurses in a publicly funded New Zealand health organization perceive the support they receive to keep practicing, and how nurse leaders see the same support. The team interviewed 13 older nurses, most aged 61 to 70, and 4 nurse leaders in 2024 and analyzed the interviews thematically. Nurses described tensions in continuing, including declining health, caring responsibilities and stigma; drivers for staying, including passion for care, financial incentives and good relationships with colleagues; and experiences of being valued or unseen, including struggles with new technology. They also described support for part-time practice and pension advice at retirement. The sample is small and comes from one organization in a country with a different pension system, so the findings may not transfer directly. Still, the theme of feeling unseen matches our exit interview data closely. The study will support the plan's individual career conversations and its attention to technology training for older nurses.

Ejebu, O. Z., Ellis, J., Sun, L., Ball, J., Philippou, J., Rafferty, A. M., Painter, S., & Turnbull, J. (2025). Values and workplace expectations to facilitate retention: Perspectives from nurses at two ends of the career spectrum. Journal of Nursing Management, 2025, Article 9912825. https://doi.org/10.1155/jonm/9912825

This English study compared what early-career and late-career NHS nurses value and expect from their employers. Ejebu et al. (2025) held focus groups and interviews with 27 nurses, the late-career group being aged 55 and over, and analyzed 784 open-text comments from a related national survey. Apart from tailored support at entry and adequate pay at exit, the two groups named largely the same factors: a negative work culture, a lack of adequate resources and limited career development were persistent threats to retention, and support from leaders and colleagues eased the strain of difficult environments. The qualitative design does not measure how strongly each factor predicts leaving, and NHS conditions differ from those of a US system. For our plan, the most useful finding is that late-career nurses are not a separate species: improvements in culture and resources will help keep them and their younger colleagues. The source supports the plan's argument to the executive team that the investment benefits the whole workforce.

Ejebu, O. Z., Jaffry, S., Turnbull, J., Huxley, C., & Pollard, E. (2026). What retains experienced NHS nurses: Results from a discrete choice experiment in England. Health Policy, 173, Article 105719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2026.105719

In a discrete choice experiment, nurses choose repeatedly between hypothetical job packages, which reveals the trade-offs they would accept. Ejebu et al. (2026) used this method with 1,988 NHS nurses aged 45 to 54, drawing eight job attributes from earlier qualitative work and including a pay attribute so that willingness to pay could be estimated. Every attribute affected choices. Cohesive teams were worth about 5.9% of annual income to respondents, compassionate leadership 5.8%, flexible working patterns 5.3% and manageable workloads 5.2%. The method is a strength, because it measures trade-offs rather than ratings, but hypothetical choices may differ from real decisions to leave, and the sample stops at age 54. For our plan, this source carries particular weight with finance, since it puts a monetary value on non-pay strategies. It will support Objectives 1 and 4, flexible scheduling and compassionate leadership training, and the budget section's argument that these costs are modest compared with the value nurses place on them.

Kramer, M., & Kramer, T. (2026). Recruiting and retaining older healthcare professionals: Evidence-based strategies for a resilient workforce. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 27(3), 184-200. https://doi.org/10.1177/15271544251404041

Kramer and Kramer (2026) conducted a systematic review, following PRISMA 2020, of strategies to recruit and retain older health care professionals and to support collaboration across generations. They screened 224 records and synthesized 84 studies narratively. Effective retention measures included phased retirement, mentoring programs and workplace health initiatives, which supported knowledge transfer, job satisfaction and workforce stability, while digital knowledge management and structured mentoring promoted intergenerational collaboration. The review covers all health professions rather than nursing alone, searched a limited set of databases and used narrative synthesis, so it cannot rank strategies by effect size. Its breadth is nonetheless valuable for a plan that combines several strategies. This source is the main evidence for the phased retirement policy and legacy mentoring roles in Objectives 2 and 3, and its emphasis on knowledge transfer will shape how the evaluation section measures new graduate retention on units with legacy mentors.

Öncü, E., Köksoy Vayısoğlu, S., Güven, Y., Peker, E., Gülgün Altıntaş, M., Kaymak, M., & Yüksel Sarı, A. (2026). Beyond age: Cognitive performance, health, job satisfaction, and work productivity profiles associated with nurses' retirement intentions. Applied Nursing Research, 91, Article 152126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2026.152126

Öncü et al. (2026) surveyed 397 nurses in two public hospitals in Turkey, comparing early-career nurses aged 25 to 35 with late-career nurses aged 45 and older on cognitive performance, health, job satisfaction, productivity and retirement intentions. More than half, 55.7%, intended to retire as soon as they were eligible. Latent profile analysis found three groups, and older nurses were more likely to fall in a high-performance but dissatisfied profile. Early retirement intentions were tied mainly to work stress, low job satisfaction, insufficient pay, demanding hours and night or shift work. The cross-sectional design and the national context limit generalization, and cognitive testing in a workforce survey raises questions about how results might be used. The finding that many older nurses perform well but are dissatisfied is important for our plan, because it frames the problem as one of working conditions rather than declining ability. It supports the plan's focus on shift options and night work, and it suggests that the evaluation should track job satisfaction among older nurses rather than assume that retaining them is enough.

Seller-Boersma, A., van Gunsteren, A. M., Kock, B., Jongerden, I., van Vugt, M., & Boot, C. (2026). Ranking retention factors and exploring preferred actions for retention across nursing subgroups: A cross-sectional study in two university hospitals. BMC Nursing, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-04602-2

This cross-sectional study asked nurses in two Dutch university hospitals to rank factors important to their retention and to describe the single action they would most like their employer to take. Seller-Boersma et al. (2026) received 483 responses, a 12.6% response rate. Overall, competitive salaries, career advancement and a positive team environment ranked highest, but priorities differed by age and education: younger and more educated nurses put career advancement first, while older nurses ranked work-life balance, supportive supervision and professional autonomy higher. The low response rate means the respondents may not represent all nurses, and university hospitals differ from our community hospitals. Even so, the age differences argue against a single retention program for all nurses. For our plan, the study supports tailoring strategies to late-career nurses and justifies the individual career conversations in the communication section, since asking each nurse what would keep them in their role is itself a retention practice. It also warns us not to drop pay from the conversation entirely, because salary still ranked first overall.