Implementation of an Extended Unit-Specific Nurse Education Program

First Author(s)

• 

  Samantha Monk, MSN, RN, , CPN (she/her/hers)

  Clinical Nurse Educator
  OSF St Francis Medical Center
  Peoria, Illinois

  Disclosure information not submitted.

Co-Author(s)

• 

  Megan Kupferschmid, CCRN, MSN, RN

  OSF St Francis Medical Center
  Peoria, Illinois

  Disclosure information not submitted.

Title: Implementation of an Extended Unit-Specific Nurse Education Program

Introduction: The transition from student nurse to practicing nurse is difficult and has been associated with high turn-over rates among new nurses. Nurse turnover negatively affects workgroup cohesion leading to decreased patient satisfaction and increased cost.

Methods:
Education focused on common pitfalls seen within the first 2 years of nursing. Three education days were added to nursing orientation as well as 12 education days to be completed within the first 2 years. The nursing anxiety and self-confidence with clinical decision making scale (NASC-CDM) was administered upon enrollment and at 6 month intervals for 2 years. Additionally, surveys were distributed to nurses who previously did not attend education to serve as a baseline. Survey responses from the experimental and control groups were compared assessing whether increased education led to decreased anxiety and increased self-confidence and decision making.

Results: A total of 47 unique participants completed at least 1 survey, 38 experimental and 9 control. The low number of participants prevented statistical comparison of the experimental and control groups. A linear mixed effects model was used to determine if scores changed significantly over surveys in the experimental group. Later surveys were associated with increased self-confidence (93.1±15.8 (n=30) at 6 months vs. 131.4±20.4 (n=7), p < 0.001) and decreased anxiety scores (77.2±13.2 (n=30) at 6 months vs. 51.4±15.2 (n=7), p < 0.001 in comparison to the 6 month survey, however the sample size decreased for each of the later surveys so these results could change if more surveys from the later time points were available.

Conclusion: With continued education through the conclusion of this project we hope to see anxiety decrease and self-confidence increase in study participants leading to decreased nursing turnover.