While increasing educational capacity and the supply of new nurses is highly important in alleviating the nursing shortage, it is equally important to retain our existing nursing
workforce. One of the key factors in retaining nurses is to provide opportunities for
professional growth which allow nurses to increase competence and satisfaction, to
grow in their knowledge and skills and to provide career pathways into different areas of specialization.
The Environment/Retention Collaborative developed and sponsored a nurse leadership program for staff nurses who are in the charge nurse role. Front line leaders have a
direct impact on the work environment. Charge nurses have a key role in professional
practice in their units or departments and have the potential to enhance patient care, peer relationships and team functioning.
Objectives of the training program were to enhance leadership skills and provide skill building in the areas of conflict resolution, communication, creative problem solving, team building and decision making.
Two one-day sessions were designed to focus on small group work utilizing exercises and scenarios to enabling learning to be applied to the work environment. An expert in
leadership development, Donna Ching, PhD, participated in the planning, finalized the
program and served as the first facilitator. An e-mentoring component was implemented
to facilitate the application of skills and knowledge in the practice setting. Participants
were paired and committed to communicating with each other once a week for a six month period by phone, e-mail and/or in-person.
The first pilot program was conducted for 38 staff nurses from ten acute care facilities throughout the state on April 10 and 24, 2007 representing Hawai’i, Maui and Oahu. The
second session was held on October 30 and 31, 2007 and was facilitated by Alison
Zecha. A total of 33 staff nurses participated from ten hospitals representing Kauai,
Maui and Oahu. For the initial session, all expenses were paid for participants, and
travel expenses were generously sponsored by AlohaCare. For the second session, a
fee covering basic expenses was charged to the hospitals. Travel expenses were paid
by the Center for Nursing. For both sessions, continuing education credits were
provided by Hawai’i Pacific Health.
An evaluation is being conducted to determine project effectiveness. Some initial comments have proven to be highly effective in providing immediate feedback to the planners. An example is as follows:
“When you go to the same place every day, easy to see it as just
a job--educational opportunities like this make it more of a ‘career’
or a ‘profession’—great to grow and learn.”
Sustainability of the program and the potential of sharing costs was a part of the planning process. The second pilot program demonstrated the willingness of ten health
care organizations to fund the basic costs for their staff nurses. This has become a
possible model for self sustainability of the program through partnerships which create
ongoing benefit for the nursing workforce. Further requests have been made to the
Center to provide this program to health care systems for staff nurses in the charge
nurse role. The level of interest and willingness to partner with the Center indicates strong potential for future self sustainability of this program. |
