Introduction
Nurse retention is an important goal for many healthcare facilities, and residency programs are one of the ways to achieve it. The paper analyzes the applicability of Versant New Graduate Nurse Residency™ to the author’s current workplace, Merakey. This organization is a not-for-profit provider focused on supporting vulnerable populations through educational, developmental, and mental health services (Merakey, n.d.). Following the case study scenario, there is new-graduate nursing turnover at the workplace, and the New Graduate Nurse Residency™ is intended to address this problem. Consequently, there is a need for a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis to prepare the organization for change. Despite the many weaknesses that may hinder the program’s implementation, it can solve existing problems and improve the organization’s performance.
Analysis
Considering Merakey’s current situation, one must include several features in the SWOT analysis. In particular, Merakey (n.d.) has a clear mission and vision to guide its employees (see Table 1). The organization provides quality services to its patients and welcomes diversity in the workforce (Merakey, n.d.). Versant New Graduate Nurse Residency™ can both support and enhance the company’s strengths. The weaknesses are that new nurses lack confidence, knowledge, and skills and are highly stressed (Van Patten & Bartone, 2019). These problems lead to low retention rates, poor motivation, job dissatisfaction, and high expenses (Pelletier et al., 2019). These weaknesses can hinder the program’s implementation, as it will require additional costs, and low motivation will cause resistance to change. However, the program can also address these weaknesses and reduce their impact.
The program offers other options in addition to overcoming existing weaknesses. The New Graduate Nurse Residency™ is a highly integrated and systematic approach that uses mentoring and feedback for nurses’ transition and improves their competencies (Versant, n.d.). The program can foster an organizational culture that enhances retention (Pelletier et al., 2019). However, it is essential to consider the threats that impact the organization. In particular, the nation’s aging increases the number of individuals needing assistance. At the same time, there is a worldwide shortage of nursing staff (Van Patten & Bartone, 2019). Moreover, competitors’ programs are always a threat and can lure employees.
Table 1. SWOT Analysis
Recommendations
Conducting a SWOT analysis is an important planning tool in any organization. According to Shahmoradi et al. (2017), its application in healthcare projects is significant because even different departments may have contrasting goals and characteristics, which is essential to consider when making changes. For the current case, the analysis demonstrates that New Graduate Nurse Residency™ offers many opportunities, including overcoming weaknesses. As a result, its application is recommended to increase retention in the Merakey organization.
Conclusion
The current paper presents a SWOT analysis of the possible application of New Graduate Nurse Residency™ at the Merakey organization to address high turnover. The analysis reveals that the organization has strengths that the program can deepen. Simultaneously, there are many weaknesses that have the potential to impede change. However, the program provides an opportunity to address these weaknesses, and therefore it is beneficial to invest in it. External threats like competitors and global trends also affect the company’s performance. The New Graduate Nurse Residency™ takes such trends into account and will help counter them.
References
Merakey. (n.d.). About Merakey. Web.
Pelletier, L. R., Vincent, C., Woods, L., Odell, C., & Stichler, J. F. (2019). Effectiveness of a psychiatric–mental health nurse residency program on retention.Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 25(1), 66-75. Web.
Shahmoradi, L., Darrudi, A., Arji, G., & Farzaneh Nejad, A. (2017). Electronic health record implementation: A SWOT analysis. Acta Medica Iranica, 55(10), 642–649. Web.
Van Patten, R. R., & Bartone, A. S. (2019). The impact of mentorship, preceptors, and debriefing on the quality of program experiences.Nurse Education in Practice, 35, 63-68. Web.
Versant. (n.d.). Versant new graduate residency™.Web.