Prelicensure Apprenticeship Program for Role Transition in Graduate Nurses

Abstract

Retention of graduate nurses in the first two years of employment is inadequately executed in nursing. The role transition from prelicensure student nurse to graduate nurse is challenging, and graduate nurses often report moral distress and feeling unfulfilled in the first workplace after graduation. Higher retention rates of graduate nurses could counteract the national nursing shortage and build a more experienced workforce. An apprenticeship model for student nurses increases experiential opportunities and offers a mentoring culture in the workplace that supplies a community of support for a graduate nurse. The aim of this quality improvement project was to create a more positive role transition for graduate nurses who are better prepared for current practice by implementing an Apprenticeship Program at a nursing school and the affiliated university healthcare system. Seven graduate nurses completed the Casey-Fink New Graduate Evaluation Survey at the 6-month and 12-month post-graduation milestones. The participants in the Apprenticeship Program demonstrated significant greater clinical competence in their role transition comparing the initial survey means between the participant and non-participant cohorts. The significance of the profession of nursing is to create a more experienced and competent workforce to improve patient outcomes.