Nurse Recruitment and Retention Rates in NICU

Introduction

It is evident that that the neonatal intensive care unit requires effective strategies for increasing retention rates of nurses. The neonatal intensive care unit at John Hopkins All Children’s Hospital has been experiencing high turnover rates in the recent years. For this reason, the focus of the improvement project is to put in place effective measures that will help in addressing the turnover issues while enhancing the satisfaction and the commitment of nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit. The proposed improvement strategy is to introduce a mentorship program that targets the nurses working in the neonatal intensive care unit. Particularly, the mentorship program will ensure that all the new nurses employed by the hospital receive mentorship from a designated mentor who can address the needs of the newly employed nurses. The mentorship program can increase the satisfaction of nurses while registering a decline in turnover rates. The most critical aspect in the implementation of the mentorship program is to ensure that there is a proper matching between the nurses and the designated mentors. Moreover, the mentorship programs will need to represent an effective strategy that will register long-term outcomes in the reduction of high turnover rates among the staff members in the neonatal intensive care unit. Based on the findings from the study, it is apparent that retention rates of nurses will increase significantly after the implementation of the mentorship program.

Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycle

The initial step in the planning process will be workforce development. Notably, the human resource managers at the hospital will take up the responsibility of implementing workforce development. Workforce development depends on the identified needs of the staff members and the manner in which the organization seeks to address the needs (Fox, 2010). Specifically, workforce development seeks to empower the staff members to focus on registering positive outcomes in the neonatal intensive care unit. Workforce development is a critical aspect in the planning process because it serves to fill in the gap between specific responsibilities at the workplace and the competencies of the staff members. It is evident that workforce development presents a platform for nurturing the talent exhibited by staff members while ensuring that they will gain remarkable skills and experience a higher sense of commitment. The establishment of workforce development at the hospital is not an easy task because it will require the approval and support of the neonatal intensive care unit leadership (Ellsbury et al., 2016). Additionally, workforce development represents all the efforts established to ensure that the nursing staff members can easily acquire new competencies and be able to register positive outcomes at the workplace. In this specific case, the target of the project is to increase the retention rates among the nursing staff members. For this reason, it is imperative to ensure that all the nursing staff members are aware of the workforce development programs that will be established during the implementation of the project.

For the implementation process to be successful, specific tasks will take the center stage of the entire process. One of these tasks is redesigning the onboarding process. Particularly, the onboarding process seeks to provide an opportunity for the organization to facilitate a successful adjustment of new employees to the social and performance setting in the neonatal intensive care unit. Notably, it is important for organizations to establish effective strategies for ensuring that new employees brought into the organization can transition easily into their jobs and register positive outcomes. It is evident that the current status of the neonatal intensive care unit requires an effective onboarding approach (Schroyer, Zellers, & Abraham, 2016). Additionally, other tasks will include the improvement of the orientation process provided to new nurses. Notably, the orientation process in the neonatal intensive care unit requires a new approach. It has become evident that the orientation process is unable to meet the expected outcomes that involve the rigorous preparation of newly graduated nurses into the organization. The orientation process needs to address the unique needs of each newly graduated nurse hired by the hospital. An effective orientation process can improve the perspectives of the newly graduated nurses and empower them to exhibit confidence and expertise (Fox, 2010). An additional stage will be the identification of mentors who will be actively involved in the mentorship programs introduced at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. After the implementation of the proposed change, recruitment and retention rates will increase by a minimum of 25%. Moreover, job satisfaction levels among freshly graduated nurses will increase by 50%. Similarly, the beneficiaries of the mentorship programs will be able to recommend other colleagues to work in the neonatal intensive care unit. In the evaluation of the proposed change, it will be imperative to measure recruitment and retention rates through a close monitoring and data collection processes at the hospital.

Do

After running the test, the neonatal intensive care unit staff members exhibited overall job satisfaction improvement by at least 35%. Additionally, about 75% of the participants in the program were able to complete the mentorship program. Job performance also increased significantly by at least 50%. Each of these changes were about by the effectiveness of the mentorship program introduced at the hospital.

Study

Before the implementation of the improvement program, there were predictions concerning the effectiveness of the mentorship program at the neonatal intensive care unit. The predictions highlighted that staff members would register high job satisfaction levels, increased levels of motivation, as well as increased recruitment and retention rates. After the implementation of the program, there were positive outcomes as predicted. The recruitment and retention rates increased while the nursing staff members exhibited high motivation, job satisfaction, and performance.

Act

One of the critical modifications required for the second cycle of the plan is the need for establishing ground rules that will govern the implementation of the mentorship programs. Particularly, the neonatal intensive care unit will ensure that there are specific rules that govern the mentorship program in an effort to improve its effectiveness in registering positive outcomes. It is evident that a mentorship program without effective rules is less likely to benefit the staff members (Price & Reichert, 2017). The established rules will ensure that there are protocols to be followed when conducting mentorship programs at the hospital.

Conclusion

The development of an effective mentorship program will have positive outcomes and be able to register high levels of recruitment and retention rates. Specifically, the program seeks to ensure that all the nursing staff members in the intensive care unit register higher levels of motivation, job satisfaction, as well as better performance. The mentorship program will bring together important aspects of performance that are beneficial to the organization.