It was a daunting task, but somebody had to do it-and fast. Patti Murray, RN, BSN, turned out to be that somebody. Determined to reverse the attrition of oncology nurses that unfolded annually in her unit-an exodus that, on average, saw about one nurse per month heading out the door-she was willing to try just about anything to stop the persistent round of recruiting. As a new nurse manager, she decided to simply ask the nurses she supervised a pretty straightforward question: why were nurses leaving? "This was kind of on a whim," said Murray, who now is coordinator of nursing operations at James P. Wilmot Cancer Center in Rochester, New York. "I said, just tell me what you need. Tell me what you want," she recalled. And, sure enough, they did.