5 Best Practices for Retaining Novice Nurses

5 Best Practices for Retaining Novice Nurse Talent through Your Residency Program

Nurse leaders are facing more challenges than ever before. With a 19.5% average nurse turnover rate,¹ healthcare organizations continue to grapple with a growing experience-complexity gap and nursing shortage. On top of this, new nurses have an accelerated time to practice, causing them to feel stressed, apprehensive, and often overwhelmed. It’s no surprise that the average new graduate nurse turnover rate is even higher at 35%,² or that the nursing workforce has seen the largest drop in over four decades.³

Every day, I talk to nurse leaders about how many nurses are leaving to travel, or they’re unhappy and just leaving the bedside,” said Kandi Helminiak, RN, BSN, Clinical Nurse Executive at Elsevier, during an American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL) conference session, “Retaining Nursing Talent Through an Innovative Systemwide Residency Program.

Best Practice 1

Setting measurable goals

Your residency program goals will differ based on your organization’s size, geography, mission, and other objectives. The goals of the program should be realistic, measurable, and authentic to the workplace environment, climate, and culture. Consider what makes your organization unique and weave these elements into the foundation of your program.

Best Practice 2

Evaluating learning solutions

Learning solutions should be evidence-based and standardized across your organization to enable consistent and optimal patient care. Innovation is a key factor that opens the door to stronger novice nurse engagement, collaboration, and cultural integration. Today’s dynamic virtual modalities such as role-playing scenarios through gaming, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and high-fidelity simulation offer a rewarding personalized learning experience for each learner.

¹https://www.nsinursingsolutions.com/Documents/Library/NSI_National_Health_Care_Retention_Report.pdf opens in new tab/window ² Windey, M., Lawrence, C., Guthrie, K., Weeks, D., Sullo, E., & Chapa, D., “A Systematic Review on Interventions Supporting Preceptor Development,” Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 31(6), (2015):312-323. ³ “A Worrisome Drop In The Number Of Young Nurses.” Auerbach, D., Buerhaus, P., Donelan K., Staiger, D., Health Affairs, April 13, 2022