A Retention Strategy for Newly Graduated Nurses

In Brief To address nurse recruitment and retention issues, hospitals have increased the number of newly graduated nurses in their hiring pools and have simultaneously established orientation programs for those nurses. Structured orientation programs facilitate newly graduated nurse transition from novice to advanced beginner. The outcome of these programs is twofold: First, they promote the confidence and competency level of new nurses in providing patient care, and second, they increase nurse retention. This literature review presents the most useful interventions used in the programs that reported positive affects on new nurses. These authors review the literature on orientation programs and describe the effects of these programs on new graduates' confidence, competency, and retention.