My project aims to measure the impact of nurse residency programs (NRPs) on the retention and job satisfaction on new graduate nurses. The process will begin with identifying two similar medical/surgical units. These units will have patients of similar acuity and staffing patterns. One unit will be the control and the other will be the pilot for the nurse residency program. The mentors/preceptors on the residency unit will undergo training. A one-year evidence-based nurse residency curriculum will be developed and implemented. The program will include a foundational framework and defined outcomes which will support development of clinical knowledge, critical clinical reasoning, and communication skills that will support them in developing from a novice to expert level nurse (Chant & Westendorf, 2019).
Every 6 months, a new cohort will begin the NRP. The nurses beginning the NRP will have completed or be well into the unit orientation. The nurses in the NRP who are less than 30 years are old will take the Casey-Fink Graduate Nurse Experience Survey at the beginning of the NRP and every 6 months for the first 2 years of their employment. The Casey-Fink Graduate nurse experience survey is a tool to measure confidence, skill comfort level, job satisfaction, and role transition of new nurses to assess the transition for the nurse from new graduate to experienced caregiver (Casey et al., 2004).
Financial commitments for this project include identifying project champions. These will be clinical educators and it is likely an additional FTE will be needed to implement this project. Costs associated with developing curriculum will also need to be considered. Staffing on the intervention unit will be impacted by the hours each new graduate nurse will be in residency. There has been research that supports nurse residency as cost effective due to potential reduction in turnover because of these programs (Hansen, 2015). The intention is that in improving job satisfaction and reducing turnover, the NRP will more than pay for itself.
References:
Casey, K., Fink, R., Krugman, M., & Propst, J. (2004). The graduate nurse experience. JONA, 34(6), 303-311. https://www.uchealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PROF-JONA-Grad-Nurse-Exp-2004.pdf
Chant, K. & Westendorf, D. (2019). Nurse residency programs. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 35(4), 185-192. https://nursing.ceconnection.com/ovidfiles/01709760-201907000-00003.pdf
Hansen, J. (2015). The financial case for nurse residency programs, part 3. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 31(2). 116-117. https://www.aacnnursing.org/nurse-residency-program
