Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Stoern Anderson

Abstract

Graduate nurses' transition from school to the work place is challenging and often leads to burnout. There was no graduate nurse residency program in women's services at the practicum facility. As a result, this facility had been unable to recruit or hire graduate nurses in the women's services unit. The purpose of this project was to develop a nurse residency program in women's services to address the lack of formal orientation for new graduate nurses at this facility. A graduate nurse residency program will provide further training for nurses to care for a more complicated population of pregnant women. Theoretical support for this project was Duchscher's, theory of transition, which suggests that allowing graduates time to adjust within a context of support allows them to develop their thinking and practice and helps them move through the stages of professional role transition. The project included a review of literature, development of a nurse residency plan, all materials needed to operationalize the program in the institution, and plans for implementing and evaluating the program over time within the context of institutional challenges, goals, and strengths. Collaboration with institutional stakeholders helped to ensure the contextual relevance of the program and ongoing administrative ownership to provide momentum for the program to move forward following delivery of the products of the DNP project to the institution. In sum, the products of this project comprise a turn-key solution to the institutional need for a graduate nurse residency program in women's services. Social change implications include possible improvement in the recruitment and retention of graduate nurses as well as the consistent development of competent and safe practitioners who will improve maternal and newborn outcomes at the facility.

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