In a rapidly changing health care environment, and with a forecasted shortage of RNs by 2025 (HRSA, 2014), Maryland’s hospitals and health systems have a critical need to retain well-prepared new graduate nurses and to ensure adequate numbers of qualified nurses with advanced nursing degrees in its workforce. In 2015, the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHSON), in partnership with five area hospitals received funding from the Maryland Higher Education Commission to develop and implement an innovative program called Supporting Professional Advancement in Nursing (SPAN). Innovative programs are needed to facilitate the seamless transition from pre-licensure nursing student to new graduate nurse and ultimately, a return to graduate studies so that nurses can achieve higher levels of education and training (IOM, 2010, p.4) while simultaneously keeping these nurses actively employed. Currently in year 4 of a 5 year grant cycle, the goal of the SPAN Program is to enhancing new nurse retention while advancing the education of students and RNs to MSN and Doctoral level to meet the future needs of Maryland’s nursing workforce.
Methods
The SPAN program has established academic-practice partnerships with five Maryland area hospitals for participants to complete their clinical practicums and be offered employment. The program consists of three phases spanning from the final clinical rotation in the participants’ pre-licensure education to graduation from a specialty MSN or DNP program approximately three to four years later. Phase I occurs during the last practicum course of the pre-licensure program and lasts approximately seven months. Phase II commences upon the student’s successful completion of the NCLEX exam at which point the newly licensed registered nurse transitions to full-time employment in their designated health system. Phase III begins after the participant has completed one year of full-time clinical practice and involves enrollment in a graduate specialty or DNP program while working full or part-time on the designated unit.
In addition to career placement in a participant’s desired area of nursing practice, the SPAN Program provides a variety of benefits and incentives to participants at various stages throughout the program. In the early stages of the program, incentives include a free NLCEX review course, a Maryland Nurses Association membership, and an opportunity to participate in the Guiding Initiatives for Doctoral Education (GUIDE) workshop, a one day interactive workshop specifically for nurses who are considering applying to a doctoral program. The SPAN program hosts regular luncheons with a guest speakers who address a current and relevant topic in nursing practice, and SPAN participants receive monthly text messages from the program on topics related to enhancing nursing skill sets and their transition to practice. The SPAN Program created a series of nine, self-paced online learning modules as another tool to support and engage the new graduate nurse with their transition to practice. Mentorship is a critical component of the SPAN Program model to support academic and career achievement. All participants are matched with an onsite hospital based mentor and a JHSON faculty mentor. The Program hosts a yearly mentor training for all hospital based mentors to ensure participants have a quality mentorship experience.
Findings*
At the end of program year three SPAN had a total of 29 participants, all of whom were offered and accepted full-time nursing positions. Additionally, 14 (48.2%) of these participants were enrolled or accepted in an advanced specialty nursing degree program. In PY 4 we received 25 applications for SPAN, a 127% increase in applicants to the program from the previous year, and admitted 19 which is an increase of 72%. At the end of program year 3 the retention of nurses who have begun full-time employment as RNs in the SPAN Program is 87.5%, having lost only 4 nurses to attrition. Results of our mentee satisfaction survey showed that 58% of SPAN participants who responded indicated they were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the quality of the mentorship they receive from their hospital based and faculty mentors.
Conclusion
The SPAN Program has successfully used employment placement, mentorship, participant incentives, text notifications and online learning modules to engage and support new graduate nurses who have entered Maryland’s nursing workforce. The applicant numbers and retention data suggests that 1) students and new nurse graduates are very receptive to this early career opportunity to help launch them into their desired nursing specialty practice and 2) nurses are committing to their employers for three years which aids our health care partners in ensuring adequate nurse staffing and 3) nearly half of SPAN participants have already enrolled in an advanced specialty nursing degree program. Evaluation metrics are in place to measure the satisfaction and efficacy of the mentoring component of the Program. Data collection and qualitative feedback from participants is ongoing including efforts to conduct a robust program evaluation that will examine participant incentive satisfaction, and overall program satisfaction
*Should this abstract be selected for a poster presentation at the 2019 Biennial Convention we will update our data to reflect data numbers current per year 4 of the program.See more of: Oral Paper & Poster: Education Sessions