High turnover rate at the Royal Brisbane Hospital’s
Bone Marrow Transplant Unit
Executive Summary

Table of Content

Executive Summary

1. Introduction

The objective of this report is to analyse the high turnover rate at Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital’s (RBWH) Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMT Unit). Excessive turnover in the BMT Unit is a prime indicator that lack of strategic planning in place from management. The purpose of the report will include the Unit’s background, the main causes of high turnover rate, negative effects of turnover, different misconceptions associated with employee turnover, recommendation for curtailing the rate of turnover within the Unit and manage those to increase retention.

1.1 Organisation Background

Cancer Care Services at the RBWH is the largest cancer service in Queensland and it’s also one of the largest in Australia (RBWH Research Report 2011). The Service encompasses divisions such as: Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant. The BMT Unit offers all treatment modalities for adult bone marrow transplantation. The 86 staff in the Unit comprises:
1 Nurse Unit Manager
2 Nurse Staff Managers
1 Assistant Director
1 Nurse Director.
The Nurse Unit Manager manages the staff’s recruiting and rostering within the Unit, while the Nurse Staff Managers manages the staff recruitment within the whole Cancer Care Services line.

2. Description of the Problem

Despite Cancer Care Service’s success story, the BMT Unit is facing a serious Human Resource problem: a high turnover rate. With over 13% annual average turnover, the BMT Unit is experiencing loss of key staff and the cost of hiring is impacting on organisation profit and quality patient care. In order to continue providing the best services with the experienced trained staff, prevent employee who are highly