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Hospitals Doing More To Retain Nurses

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The Associated Press

Published: February 16, 2009

MIAMI - Newly minted nurse Katie O'Bryan was determined to stay at her first job at least a year, even if she did leave the hospital every day wanting to quit.

She lasted nine months.

The breaking point came after paramedics brought in a child who'd had seizures in to the emergency room. She was told he was stable and to check him in a few minutes but decided not to wait. She found he had stopped breathing and was turning blue.

"If I hadn't gone right away, he probably would have died," O'Bryan said. "I couldn't do it anymore."

Many novice nurses are thrown into hospitals with little direct supervision, quickly forced to juggle multiple patients and make critical decisions for the first time in their careers. About 1 in 5 newly licensed nurses quits within a year, according to one national study.

That turnover rate is a major contributor to the nation's growing shortage of nurses. But there are expanding efforts to give new nursing grads better support. Many hospitals are trying to create safety nets with residency training programs.

More hospitals are investing in longer, more-thorough residencies.

One national program , Versant RN Residency, was developed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and has spread to 70 other hospitals.

The Versant plan pairs new nurses with more-experienced nurses with whom they share patients. At first, the veterans do the bulk of the work as the rookies watch; by the end of the 18-week training, those roles are reversed.

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