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The Preservation of Intellectual Capital of Nurses Working in the Community Hospital

Saturday, 29 October 2011

Gloria L. Reidinger, EdD, RN, MS
Center for Clinical Affairs, Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington Heights, IL

Learning Objective 1: Name two intangible losses anticipated when baby boomers exit the nursing workforce.

Learning Objective 2: Describe two mentoring activities that can be utilized to support succession planning.

The baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) will begin retiring in large numbers by 2010 (Kaye & Cohen, 2008). When nurses retire, they leave with their organizational knowledge (Hart, 2007), also known as intellectual capital (IC; Weston, Estrada, & Carrington, 2007). As a result of nurse retirement, health care organizations will be dependent on the assets of the remaining employees (Collins & Collins, 2007). The purpose of this study was to examine mentoring and its impact on cultivating intellectual capital as a means of succession planning.

A mixed method descriptive two-phase research designed was used. A convenience sample of nurses was asked to complete the Alleman Mentoring Activities Questionnaire (AMAQ; Alleman & Clarke, 2000) to examine the extent of mentoring experienced by nursing personnel, and the Nursing Intellectual Capital Inventory (NICI; Reidinger, 2008) to quantify nurses’ degrees of participation in professional development and organizational involvement activities. A purposive sample of nurses also participated in focus groups to collect personal narrative related to mentoring experiences within the organization.

The qualitative portion of this study provided evidence of mentoring and succession planning activities occurring within this organization and overall, nurses reporting greater participation in professional development and organizational involvement activities had higher mean mentoring scores.

Further research is needed to examine the potential impact of formal mentoring programs on newer nurses’ participation in professional development and organizational activities as a means to preserve Intellectual Capital and support succession planning within the organization.

 

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