Hospitals are reporting a high rate of turnover of new nursing graduates. Hospital managers have the responsibility of lowering the rate of turnover by learning how to develop and implement mentoring programs for new nurses (Stahl, 2004). Working as a welfare manager in Health Net hospital, I intend to use the program to lower the rate of turnover and increase the hospital’s productivity.
First of all, I intend to form a committee consisting of willing individuals from different departments in the hospital to oversee the implementation of the program. Asking them to join the committee helps encourage all members of staff to participate in the implementation of the mentoring program (Mentoring Programs for New Nurses, 2011). The committee’s leading mandate will help the hospital generate a list of expectations of the mentors and create a training manual for guiding mentors on what they are expected to do with the new nursing graduates.
Additionally, the committee will prepare a timetable indicating the appropriate duration for covering the provided topics and the objectives that the mentors and the new nurses should achieve during the mentoring. I will ensure that the mentoring program addresses not only the facility’s operational procedures but also important concerns, such as the emotional impact the job can have and the best methods of managing stress.
After creating the training manual and preparing efficiently, I will persuade all nurses to volunteer as mentors. The committee will evaluate the volunteers’ strengths and weaknesses and select those with positive reviews and those who are highly respected by their fellow nurses for them to serve the hospital as mentors. In case of difficulties in finding enough mentors, I will encourage the hospital to provide an incentive program for those who volunteer. Attractive incentive programs will motivate most of the nurses to accept to work as mentors (Grossman and Valiga, 2005).
Since training mentors is essential in achieving the objectives of the mentoring program, I will assign the duty of training them to experienced members of the committee (Flynn, 2006). The trainers will be required to discuss, among other issues, the methods of assistance of the new graduates and mechanisms of accessing the resources for achieving the hospital’s objectives. I will endeavor to make the training more relevant by meeting with the mentors regularly to update them on new developments regarding the program and answering their questions.
After training the mentors, I will assign at least two of them to each of the new nursing graduates and create social activities to make mentoring easier. Social activities reduce the level of stress relative to the stress they commonly encounter while taking care of multiple patients. Since the effectiveness of the program depends on a myriad of factors, I will evaluate and improve the program to ensure the hospital achieves the desired objectives. Moreover, as the new nursing graduates mature in leadership, I will encourage the mentors to adopt coaching styles where individuals are rewarded with increased relationship behaviour (Grossman and Valiga, 2005).
There are barriers to implementing the mentoring program, and I will develop strategies to overcome them. The first barrier is that the hospital is relatively understaffed. Therefore, the available time for training mentors and implementing the program is limited. Further, the number of volunteers that would volunteer is insufficient to meet the hospital’s demands. The nurses have personal programs to attend to after official working hours, so, consequently, they may not be readily willing to work for extra hours.
Despite the barriers, the hospital considers that the mentoring program has numerous long time benefits and, therefore, the program has been implemented, creating strategies to overcome the challenges. The hospital will ask the nurses to use part of their free time to execute the mentorship duties. Further, it will allow the volunteers to take part in mentoring programs during official working hours. The hospital will also pay the mentors competitive salaries to motivate them.
Since the hospital is willing to invest in the program despite barriers, it is notable that it has identified the benefits of having a mentoring program. The program will help the organization to increase the rate of job satisfaction and decrease the rate of turnover. The reduction in the rate of turnover will ultimately lead to growth in the hospital’s productivity (Flynn, 2006).
However, evaluation of the program is essential for ensuring that it helps the hospital to achieve its objectives. Therefore, I will evaluate the program frequently. I will conduct surveys involving the mentors and new nurses, who will be the main respondents (Mentoring Programs for New Nurses, 2011). The reports of the surveys help make the necessary improvements before starting mentoring programs with new teams of nursing graduates. Therefore, I will use it to improve the program. Apart from using surveys, I will encourage new nursing graduates who have completed the mentoring program to become mentors.
Despite the costs associated with developing and implementing a mentoring program for new nurses, the program is one of the most effective management tools for increasing the rate of productivity in hospitals. The program helps hospitals to retain most of their workers for longer periods. Therefore, it helps hospitals to benefit adequately from their nurses’ skills and experiences and improve in management.
References
Flynn, J. P. (2006). The Role of the Preceptor a Guide for Nurse Educators, Clinicians, and Managers (2nd ed.). New York: Springer Pub.
Grossman, S., & Valiga, T. M. (2005). The New Leadership Challenge: Creating the Future of Nursing (2nd ed.). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis.
Stahl, M. J. (2004). Encyclopedia of Health Care Management. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.
Mentoring Programs for New Nurses. (2011). What Works for Health: Policies and Programs to Improve Wisconsin’s Health. Web.