New Graduate Orientation in the Rural Community Hospital

Abstract

Retention rates for 1-year new graduate nurses had fallen to 30% at the author's institution. Upon reviewing feedback, a lack of a new graduate orientation program was determined to be a significant factor. The challenge presented to staff development was to develop a program that would increase 1-year retention rates of new graduate nurses without incurring overtime costs or significant additional expenses. The result was a successful 8-week orientation program using multiple teaching methods. New graduates rated their own progress through the use of a self-assessment questionnaire. One-year retention rates for new graduate nurses increased to 77% after the program was implemented.

A systematic review of the effectiveness of strategies and interventions to improve the transition from student to newly qualified nurse

“…The studies were conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) (n = 2), USA (n = 24), Australia (n = 2), New Zealand (n = 1) and Thailand (n = 1). Sample sizes ranged from 9 (Squires, 2002) to 6000 (Ulrich et al, 2010).…”

“…O'Malley Floyd et al, 2005 showed that 77% (24/31) participants envisaged themselves becoming more knowledgeable and confident as measured using a yes/no questionnaire reply. Similarly, Squires (2002) found that respondents reported an overall perception of 'increased confidence'; however this was not statistically significant due to a very small sample size (n = 9).…”

“…In addition to the one randomised control trial (Shepherd et al, 2007) and two quasi experimental studies (Newhouse et al, 2007;Komaratat and Oumtanee, 2009), a variety of research approaches were used including: one pre and post-test design (Young et al, 2008), one nonexperimental descriptive correlation study (Vasseur, 2009), one comparative intervention study as part of an action research project (Edmond, 2004), three descriptive comparative surveys (Beecroft et al, 2001;Halfer et al, 2008;Krugman et al, 2006), two cross-sectional descriptive studies (Crimlisk et al, 2002;Setter et al, 2011), eight longitudinal studies (Altier and Krsek, 2006;Beecroft et al, 2008;Beyea et al, 2010;Roud et al, 2005;Squires, 2002;Ulrich et al, 2010;Williams et al, 2007), one mixed methods (Beyea et al, 2007) and one 6 year evaluation study (Beecroft et al, 2006), one retrospective study (Friedman et al, 2011) and eight descriptive case studies (Allanson and Fulbrook, 2010;Goode et al, 2009;Kowalski and Cross, 2010;Leigh et al, 2005;Marcum and West, 2004;Messmer et al, 2004;O'Malley Floyd et al, 2005;Owens et al, 2001). In mixed method studies only the quantitative data have been extracted, the qualitative data are not reported in this review.…”

“…Fourteen studies focused on nurse internship/ residency programmes (Altier and Krsek, 2006;Beecroft et al, 2001Beecroft et al, , 2008Goode et al, 2009;Halfer et al, 2008;Kowalski and Cross, 2010;Krugman et al, 2006Messmer et al, 2004Newhouse et al, 2007;Owens et al, 2001;Roud et al, 2005;Setter et al, 2011Ulrich et al, 2010Williams et al, 2007). Seven studies explored graduate nurse orientation programmes (Allanson and Fulbrook, 2010;Crimlisk et al, 2002;Friedman et al, 2011;Marcum and West, 2004;O'Malley Floyd et al, 2005;Squires, 2002;Young et al, 2008) Six studies focused on mentorship/ preceptorship (Beecroft et al, 2006;Edmond, 2004; Komaratat and Oumtanee, 2009;Leigh et al, 2005, Sorensen andYankech 2008;Vasseur, 2009). Three studies evaluated simulation-based graduate programmes (Beyea et al, 2007(Beyea et al, , 2010Shepherd et al, 2007).…”

“…Seven studies explored graduate nurse orientation programmes (Allanson and Fulbrook, 2010;Crimlisk et al, 2002;Friedman et al, 2011;Marcum and West, 2004;O'Malley Floyd et al, 2005;Squires, 2002;Young et al, 2008) Although similar to nurse residency/internship programmes in the way they are structured including both didactic elements and clinical support through preceptorship, they are generally shorter in duration (1 to 20 weeks).…”