Questions: 1. Assume you are in charge of socializing the newly hired nurses at
ID: 1188095 • Letter: Q
Question
Questions:
1. Assume you are in charge of socializing the newly hired nurses at a local hospital. What steps would you take to ensure that they understand the hospital's organizational culture? How would you help them understand how to manage stress on a daily basis so as to prevent burnout later in their careers? Explain.
2. Hospital environments are more stressful in nature than the work environments found in many other organizations. What are some of the unique challenges that hospitals face when attempting to create a supportive organizational culture that helps employees reduce and manage their stress levels?
3. Think about your university or an organization for which you have worked. Using the intervention points in Exhibit 2.6 provide exmples of how the university or organization attempted to create a certain type of organizational culture. Was it successful (or unsuccessful) in creating the desired culture? Explain.
Explanation / Answer
For a new graduate nurse, the first two years of employment is a crucial period that will greatly determine whether they will successfully transition from being a novice to a competent staff nurse. This period of high stress and adjustment may also determine whether one will remain or leave the nursing profession altogether. Most new graduate nurses experience reality shock when they realize that the nursing profession is not what they had hoped it would be. With the nursing shortage and retention issues, nurses often have to work with inadequate staffing, increased workloads and more mandatory overtime hours. Compared to experienced nurses, new graduate nurses have the poorest retention rates (Hillman & Foster, 2011). The high demands of the job are particularly stressful for the inexperienced nurses, especially if they did not have an adequate orientation and training period. According to current research findings, approximately 30 percent of new graduate nurses and as much as 50 percent, in some instances,will quit within the first year of being hired (Hillman & Foster, 2011). With the economic downturn, most U.S. hospitals are trying to save money by eliminating or cutting down the new graduate training programsfor nurses. Although training programs cost money, providing a good transition program to new nurses will be more cost-effective for the health care institution in the long run. Not only is high staff turnover very expensive, costing anywhere from $22,000 to over $64,000 per nurse, it also disrupts the work teams leading to decreased productivity(Finkelman, 2012, p. 285). Having less competent and experienced nurses may also compromise patient care and safety. If the problem with retention is not addressed and staffing shortage persists, other nurses will feel burnt out from the increased workload, excessive overtime and unending cycle of training new employees, most of whom do not stay longer than a year anyway
Stressful Work EnvironmentMany of the participants reported feeling overwhelmed and stressed with the nurse-topatient-ratio, as a result of having inadequate nursing staff (Casey et al., 2004). Some struggled when they had to rotate from day to night shift in order to cover the staffing shortage (Casey et al., 2004). Because of the rapid turnover and problems with staff retention, a few of the graduate nurses had to assume the role of charge nurse or preceptor after only nine months of experience (Casey et al., 2004). They were subjected to more stress having to step up to the challenge when they themselves have barely adjusted to their new role as a professional nurse.
In 2003, as an attempt to address the problem of nursing shortage, the Joint Commission (then known as Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or JCAHO) released recommendations for improving employee retention, which included providing financial support for internships lasting at least one year for new graduate nurses (Casey et al., 2004). The skill level of new nurses depends on where they went to school because the amount of clinical exposure varies from one nursing program to another (Hillman & Foster, 2011). For the benefit of the patients and the health care institutions, new graduates should no longer be expected to transition into the role of a professional nurse without a nurse residency or internship program.
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