Effective Strategies for New Nurse Onboarding and Retention

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To help new employees feel comfortable with their decision to join a unit and become welcomed as a team player, employers must:
Create the impression it is well run and values its employees
Send the first week’s orientation schedule and new hire paperwork prior to the start date- helps decrease stress and anticipation of what’s to come
Have daily, one-on-one meetings with their supervisors, this helps with successful retention and which can be attributed to the strong supervisor-employee relationship
Provide programs that build loyalty by engaging employees and making them feel appreciated from day one, this will lead to nurse retention.
Include orientation, training, feedback and follow-up
When the new nurse arrives on a unit, the first meeting:
Establish the tone of the relationship
Remember that the mentee will be uncertain and may feel intimidated prior to meeting
Be friendly, welcoming, reassuring, and encouraging.
Encourage your mentee to ask questions about the mentoring program.
One of the best ways to cultivate employee loyalty is to encourage a connection among co-workers, such as through a buddy system. A “buddy” can serve to help employees feel comfortable in their new work environment by showing them around the office, and answering their questions and concerns. Providing a good fit between the mentee and mentor can either make or break the relationship and the ultimate success of the mentoring program (AMSN Chief Executive Officer, Cynthia Nowicki Hnatiuk, EdD, RN, CAE, FAAN, 2014).
There is a saying in our profession that “nurses eat their young” referring to the way certain veteran nurses are said to treat new nursing graduates. When becoming a nurse, we should have a desire to be a leader, an edu...

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Recruitment and retention of nurses has become a priority. It is critical that new graduates feel good about their first job and enjoy the work they do (Sandy Keefe, 2008). To help with nurse retention, new nurses would benefit from starting out on a Med/Surg unit. It will help build confidence and knowledge of basic nursing care. The new nurses will gain professional development during this time. We must learn to crawl before we walk, and that’s why we should start out on a Med/surg unit before advancing to a specialty unit. Med/surg floors receive a variety of patients that enables the novice nurse to learn and master basic nursing skills, including time management (Sandy Keefe, 2008). Med/surg units provide an excellent foundation for nursing and Nursing administrators generally believe a year in med/surg is best (Sandy Keefe, 2008).

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