Nursing First: Promoting Academic and Professional Success Through a Seamless Transition Program for Registered Nurses to Baccalaureate Students.

ABSTRACT: The Nursing First Program was established to provide students in an associate of science in nursing program at a downstate New York community college a seamless transition into the registered nurse to baccalaureate program of a nearby university while promoting academic performance and professional excellence. Selected students attend mandatory seminars designed to provide academic support and a sense of camaraderie, with the aim of ensuring success in both programs. Initial outcomes indicate that the program inspired participants to reach their highest potential, academically and professionally. Nursing First scholars have excelled as newly employed registered nurses and as students in the university program.

Working Together: Addressing Cultural Diversity, Patient Safety, and Quality Care Through an Interprofessional Health Care Course.

An interprofessional course was designed to augment the integration of practice and education in a large, public northeastern university. The schools of medicine, nursing, and social work, along with the associated hospital's quality assurance team, worked together to design curricula aimed at improving quality of care, communication, collaboration, and teamwork. Development and implementation of the elective course resulted in extended discussions among the schools, complementing the university's overall initiative to develop a formal interprofessional educational program. Evaluations indicated that participants developed a greater appreciation for the roles of fellow health care professionals and a desire to better utilize their services.

Motivation for entry, occupational commitment and intent to remain: a survey regarding Registered Nurse retention.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study of the relationships between Registered Nurses' motivation for entering the profession, occupational commitment and intent to remain with an employer until retirement. BACKGROUND: Identifying and supporting nurses who are strongly committed to their profession may be the single most influential intervention in combating the nursing shortage. An understanding of the characteristics these individuals possess could lead to a decline in the high attrition rates plaguing the profession. METHOD: Using a survey design, Registered Nurses enrolled at the school of nursing and/or employed at the associated university medical centre of a large, not-for-profit state university were polled in 2008. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine how the variables of motivation for entry and occupational commitment could indicate intent to remain. RESULTS: The strongest indicators of intent to remain were normative commitment and age, with a 70% average rate of correctly estimating retention. Exp(B) values for normative commitment (1·09) and age (1·07) indicated that for each one-point increase on the normative commitment scale or one-point increase in age, the odds of remaining with an employer until retirement increased by 1·1%. CONCLUSION: Transformational changes in healthcare environments and nursing schools must be made to encourage loyalty and obligation, the hallmarks of normative commitment. Retention strategies should accommodate mature nurses as well as promote normative commitment in younger nurses.