All Entries Tagged With: "new graduate nurses"
Keeping new graduate nurses happy and on the job
Within the first two years of becoming a nurse, more than 60% of nurses end up leaving their first job. In this economy, nurse managers have to find ways to keep morale up and nurses in their positions. To make the transition between the classroom and hospital setting easier, many facilities are turning to residency programs.
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Poll taps into time frames for new grad orientation
Orientation is a critical, and often stressful, period for new graduate nurses. Adapting to a new facility, trying to remember everything from nursing school, and applying the knowledge learned in nursing school at the bedside are all tall tasks in themselves. But a supportive work environment, and some time, can ease the transition for new grads. [more]
Grasp your new grad nurses
Transitioning from nursing school to the bedside can be difficult for new nurses. And literature reveals a hefty amount of new nurse graduates depart from their first position within two years of hire. So, why are they leaving? Like many of us, new nurses want to feel valued, be rewarded, have strong relationships with their managers, and enjoy a work-life balance.
Managers work so hard to get nurses in the door that it makes sense to work hard to retain them. It’s important to let new nurse graduates know they are welcome on the unit and will be a valued part of the team. Here are some ways you can do this:
- Create welcome flyers. Make welcome flyers and post them around your facility-not only in nursing areas, but also in places physicians will see them.
- Get to know them. It can useful to get to know new graduates before assigning them a preceptor or a mentor, because that way you have a better idea of their personality and can make a suitable placement. To accomplish this, consider spending the first two weeks of new nurses’ orientation with them as much as possible.
- Check in weekly. Most new nurse graduates are beginning their first-ever full-time job. The reality of this can be overwhelming, so check in weekly to make sure they are not overwhelmed.
- Recognize the new nurse at staff meetings. Before you begin the weekly staff meeting, take the time to introduce everyone to the new nurse. This is a great way for the new nurse to remember faces and feel a part of the team.
How do you make your new grad nurses feel appreciated?
Editor’s note: This excerpt was taken from the book, Nurse Retention Toolkit: Everyday Ways to Recognize and Reward Nurses. For more retention tips, look out for its release in early September.
Groundbreaking study seeks to uncover truth about new grad nurses
As new generations of nurses enter the workforce, questions abound. What influences a new graduate’s job choice? How long do they expect to stay? Why do some of them want to leave? Professors Christine T. Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Carol S. Brewer, PhD, RN, are spearheading an in-depth study to find answers to some of these critical questions. And thanks to a recent $4.1 million grant, in addition to $1.9 million in earlier funding, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the research is now funded into 2015.
“There is a lot of information floating around about new graduates,” says Kovner, who has been at New York University since 1985. “But, in my opinion, there is no solid, systematic research.”
Already, that is changing.
The study, which tracks more than 3,000 nurses from 35 states, touches on a variety of topics including workplace experience, relationships with managers, and violence against nurses. Some early highlights from the first few years of the study include:
- About 66% of newly licensed registered nurses (NLRNs) worked a 12-hour shift
- Poor management was cited as the top professional reason for leaving a first job
- About 62% of NLRNs reported at least one incidence of verbal abuse
- 27.2% of NLRNs who had worked at least 13 months in nursing had already left their first job
- Nearly 60% of NLRNs reported they were satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs
- 41% of NLRNs planned to stay in their first jobs for less than three years
- The median income for NLRNs was $45,000
- The most important work characteristics to new RNs are “the ability to do the job well” and “being rewarded fairly for the work”
What are your impressions of these early study findings?
For more information on the study, visit http://www.rnworkproject.org or for more of this article, click here.
