Coaching Toward Career Persistence: A Global Collaborative Strategy to Build Capacity Worldwide

Hodges, Helen F.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011: 9:10 AM

Helen F. Hodges, RN, PhD
Ann C. Keeley, RN, MN, PMHCNS-BC, LMFT
Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA

Learning Objective 1: describe an interactive online strategy to analyze, develop, and document student insight, self correction, self efficacy, and positive adaptability to challenges in the practice setting

Learning Objective 2: develop a flexible online tool for local and global coaching for career persistence, and collaborative faculty initiatives to build nurse career persistence worldwide.

Purpose: Recent reports from the US describe new graduate first year attrition continues at 60-70% with substantial loss to institutions financially, intellectually, and via risk management. With an interest to educate nurses who know how to stay in nursing, investigators explored student blogging as a means to analyze nursing students’ developing professional resilience and persistence behaviors during practicum courses. The study is based on findings from previously published works of professional resilience in new nurses, and a theory of career persistence in nurses.

Method: Following IRB approval and informed consent, a purposive sample of prelicensure students yielded 35 participants who had responded to semi-structured questions through their private blogs during practicum courses. Following course completion investigators analyzed confidential writing for evidence of resilience, persistence, positive adaptability, self correction, and insight, and to test the use of semi structured questions for eliciting self interpretation.

Results: Findings from participants indicate consistency with previous studies and lack of awareness of significant self-corrective behaviors.

Conclusion: Results are used to further develop online interaction and guided development of resilience and persistence. Private blogging between faculty and student offers an ongoing record of student growth, and provides an accessible connection for interacting with practicum students locally and globally facilitating transcultural knowledge of similarities and differences in issues related to the worldwide nurse crisis. The researchers anticipate that the results of the study and method could be useful globally for collaborative efforts to better prepare future new nurses for the current healthcare environment.

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