Evaluation of an Innovative New Graduate Transition Program: Social and Professional Reality Integration for Nurse Graduates (SPRING)

This presentation is part of : Solutions in Nursing Education

Robin Purdy Newhouse, RN, PhD, Nursing Administration, The Johns Hopkins Hospital/University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD, USA and Janice J. Hoffman, RN, MSN, Nursing Administration, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Population, Setting, Sample, Year: New graduates hired June 2001 - October 2003 at a large academic hospital.

Concepts/Variables:Nurse recruitment and retention, organizational commitment, sense of belonging, anticipated turnover, and process evaluation.

Methods:Recruitment and retention data collected. Instruments included Organizational Commitment, Sense of Belonging, and Anticipated Turnover Scale for baseline measures (new graduates hired in 2001), and intervention measures (new graduates in SPRING at 6 months and 1 year). Qualitative data collected through evaluations and focus groups.

Findings: Preliminary results indicate increased recruitment of nurse graduates (44%), but no significant differences in total scores on survey instruments. Item analysis yielded few differences [decision to work for this organization higher at 6 months (F = 3.411, df 2, 192, p=0.35), feeling that time in position was sufficient was lower at 6 months than baseline or 12 months (p=.019 at 6 months and p = .04 at 12 months), more important to fit within organization at 6 months after hire higher than baseline (p=.010), but not at 12 months (F = 3.623, df = 2, 194, p = .026)]. Focus groups and evaluations yielded areas of SPRING program requiring further evaluation.

Conclusions: Development and implementation of a structured program to integrate nurse graduates into the organization demonstrated increases in recruitment, but little significant differences in selected concepts. Although means indicate positive program outcomes, this analysis lacks sufficient power to determine a difference. Additional data collection and new measures are needed that better measure program impact.

Implications: Identifying strategies that decrease attrition and enhance organizational commitment and sense of belonging are important to create professional nursing environments. More research is needed to determine the effect of new strategies on new graduate transition.

Learning Objective #1: Describe the development, content, and implemention of a program designed to improve new graduate nurses' integration into the acute care setting at a large academic health care setting
Learning Objective #2: Discuss five metrics used to evaluate SPRING program success