Building Resiliency in New Nurses

Building Resiliency in New Nurses Background: The Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is a crucial care and stressful unit. The nurses not only care for complex patients with an array of co-morbidities, but also therapeutically support the family. This may lead to an increased workload and increased stress levels on nurses, which can potentially cause burnout and turnover. Resiliency training has been shown to decrease stress levels and improve positive outlook in stressful work environments (Pipe et al. 2012; Steinhart et al. 2008; Burton et al. 2010; Sood et al. 2011). There is a gap in the literature regarding specific interventions to help new nurses cope with the stressors of a critical care environment. Research Question Do newly hired nurses who receive resiliency training in addition to standard orientation improve nurse job satisfaction scores and decrease job turnover? Purpose/Intervention The purpose of this project is to improve the well-being and job satisfaction of the new staff nurses on the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at CCHMC. Using principles founded in positive psychology, an education program will be implemented into the orientation schedule of newly hired nurses. Job satisfaction scores and stress levels will be monitored before the educational program and at 6 months and 1 year post. Data will be collected to determine the efficacy of the additional education throughout the orientation period.