Hospital industry data places last year’s registered nurse turnover at around 17%, which means if you have 25 nurse positions on your roster, you lost roughly 4 of them last year.
If you’re lucky, those departures were spread out across the year. But wouldn’t you be luckier if they just didn’t leave?
Better yet, instead of wishing for luck, start doing stay interviews.
Not exit interviews, when their minds are already made up. We’re talking about conversations before they decide to leave, with questions that help you keep them.
What is a stay interview?
A stay interview is a 1:1 conversation between a leader and a team member about what keeps them in their role and what might lead them to leave.
Thoughtful stay interviews ask questions to help you understand why people stay, what causes dissatisfaction, and what dissatisfactions are serious enough to turn into intent to leave.
These conversations should be held face-to-face and target a range of clinicians (nursing assistants, nurses, medication aides), not just your highest earners.
Are stay interviews a good use of your time?
Weigh it against the alternative. Recruiting, onboarding, and covering shifts for a single replacement nurse can add up to weeks of manager time and months of elevated labor costs. A 30-minute conversation is a small investment by comparison.
How do stay interviews differ from exit interviews?
What’s the difference?
- An exit interview happens after someone has decided to leave, so it explains a loss you can no longer prevent.
- A performance review looks back at results and goals.
- A stay interview looks ahead: it asks what would keep someone and gives you time to act.
Why do stay interviews matter for nurse retention?
Stay interviews matter because turnover is costly, and many staff will tell you what would help if you ask. Every resignation brings recruiting and hiring costs, along with lost experience and continuity on the unit.
That cost doesn’t capture the ripple effects on a unit: open shifts, overtime, orientation time for new staff, and a heavier load on the people who stay.
For nursing homes, turnover is also a public number. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began posting staff turnover and weekend staffing data on Care Compare in 2022, drawn from Payroll-Based Journal submissions. Additionally, the Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program added a total nursing staff turnover measure for fiscal year 2026.
Families comparing facilities can see your retention record, and for skilled nursing facilities, turnover now factors into Medicare payment adjustments.
What are employee flight risk warning signs?
Some changes in behavior can signal that a team member is rethinking their role. Common cues include:
- Less participation: Quieter in huddles, staff meetings, or unit projects
- Shift pattern changes: Picking up fewer extra shifts or requesting more swaps
- Fewer questions or suggestions: Less input on how the unit runs
- Less interest in growth: Skipping training, certifications, or development conversations
These signs aren’t reliable on their own, and they can have many causes. Treat them as a reason to start a conversation, not a conclusion about the person.
Who should conduct a stay interview?
Most stay interviews are led by the direct manager, who knows the person’s role and can act on what they hear.
When the direct manager is part of what someone wants to change, a conversation with that manager is unlikely to bring it up.
Rotating a skip-level leader (director of nursing or HR) into some interviews each year gives staff a safer place to speak up and can sometimes elicit more candid answers, especially when the working relationship is new.
When in doubt, choose the person the team member trusts most.
How do you conduct a stay interview?
A stay interview works best as a short, planned conversation that feels like an invitation, not an evaluation. Here’s a simple process:
- Schedule it: Book 20-30 minutes of paid time for the team member.
- Set the tone: Explain that the goal is to learn what keeps them, not to review performance.
- Ask 5 or 6 questions: Keep questions open-ended, one topic at a time.
- Listen and take notes: Stay open rather than defensive, and ask if they have ideas for solutions.
- Follow up: Share what you’ll do and when.
How often should you conduct stay interviews?
Some facilities hold a stay interview with each team member once a year.
Add a check-in about 90 days after nurse onboarding begins, plus another after big changes, such as a new unit leader or a restructure.
Match the cadence to your capacity. A few well-run conversations with real follow-up do more than many rushed ones.
When should you schedule stay interviews?
Shift-based units make stay interviews easy to postpone, so plan them into the schedule in advance. Hold them on paid time, in a private space, and include night and weekend staff, not just day-shift staff.
Avoid the start or end of a 12-hour shift, when people are focused on handoff or getting home.
What stay interview questions should you ask nurses?
Good stay interview questions give people room to explain.
Choose 5 or 6 from the categories below, which cover the most common reasons clinicians stay or leave.
Questions about the role and daily work
Start with the work itself. Many answers here echo what nurses need from facilities: the right tools, support, and time to give good care:
- What do you look forward to most in your week?
- What part of your work drains you the most?
- What gets in the way of the care you want to give?
- What would make your role more satisfying?
Questions about schedule and workload
Schedule fit and workload are often where burnout shows up. These questions help you spot it early:
- How well does your current schedule work for your life outside work?
- Where would more flexibility in your schedule make the biggest difference?
- When do you feel most stretched or worn out at work?
- What would make your workload more manageable?
Questions about leadership and communication
These questions cover how people experience their manager and the unit culture. Expect some answers to be about you, and thank people for them:
- What’s one thing I could do differently to support you?
- How do you prefer to receive feedback?
- Do you feel your ideas are heard on this unit?
- How would you describe the culture on our unit to a friend?
Questions about growth and recognition
People tend to stay where they can see a future. These questions show whether someone feels they’re building skills, moving toward their goals, and getting noticed for their work:
- What skills do you want to build in the next year?
- What recognition has meant the most to you?
- Where do you see yourself in 2 years?
Questions that reveal why staff stay or might leave
Listen without defending current policies or explaining why something can’t change. Take notes, ask follow-up questions:
- What are the top reasons you stay?
- What would need to change for you to consider leaving?
- If another organization approached you, what would it need to offer?
- If you could change one thing about your role or this unit, what would it be?
What should you do after a stay interview?
After a stay interview, document what you heard and follow up within 30 days. The conversation only builds trust if people see something happen as a result.
How do you document stay interview feedback?
A simple one-page stay interview template keeps notes consistent across leaders and units.
Store notes securely. When you report across units, share themes, not names.
How do you turn feedback into action?
Start with quick wins you can deliver soon. Schedule questions tend to draw the most specific answers, and they’re often the easiest to act on.
A nurse who needs every other Thursday for childcare, or who would prefer evening shifts over mornings, is telling you exactly what would keep them.
Report back to each person, even when the answer is “not yet” or “no.” Be honest about what can’t change and why.
Then look for patterns across interviews. If several people raise similar concerns, you’ve got a good lead on a problem that can have a big impact if addressed.
Stay interview best practices
The most effective stay interviews are consistent, honest, and followed by visible action. These habits help:
- Keep it separate from performance reviews: Hold stay interviews at a different time so people don’t feel evaluated.
- Ask everyone: Include people who seem satisfied and staff on every shift, not only those you’re worried about.
- Listen more than you talk: Aim for the team member to do most of the talking.
- Avoid promises you can’t keep: Commit to looking into something rather than guaranteeing a change.
- Follow up on what you hear: Close the loop, even when the answer is no.
Stay interviews won’t prevent every resignation. But they give you a real chance to act on the reasons you can influence.
How can stay interview questions fit your retention plan?
Stay interview questions fit best as a regular habit: ask early, listen closely, document what you hear, and act on it.
When schedules come up, as they often do, make the fix part of how you plan.
Turnover can look sudden from the outside. On the unit, it usually builds over months: small frustrations, schedule requests that went nowhere, extra shifts nobody asked about. Stay interviews let leaders hear those signals while there’s still time to respond, and a schedule shaped by what staff said gives them a concrete reason to stay.
Central Staffing generates schedules based on each team member’s availability, preferences, and credentials, so what you hear in stay interviews can show up on the next schedule.
Sources:
- CMS to Post Nursing Home Staff Turnover and Weekend Staffing Level Information on Care Compare: Center for Medicare Advocacy
- Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing Program FY 2026 Program Year Fact Sheet: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- NSI: 2026 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report
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