The Florida Center for Nursing

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Retention & Recruitment Funded Projects
Projects Awarded in the Inaugural Year - 2008
Funding Total = $ 114,714
Total return-on-investment (ROI) of $3.70:$1.00

The Center recognizes and thanks Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Florida Incorporated for its contribution matching FCN's dedicated funding level thus allowing more projects to be selected.

First Coast Nurse Leaders Consortium - Jacksonville, FL
Project Title: First Coast RN Residency Partnership
Brief Description: The purpose is to develop a Registered Nurse residency program supporting the retention of the first year novice nurses providing direct patient care. It is a collaborative project between academia and practice. Turnover in the first year for new graduates is reported as high as 55%. Educated as generalists, nurses often find themselves facing specialty practices and high acuity patients. A one-year residency in a practice setting with a University partnership would allow further skill development, professional practice and confidence building. It is anticipated that college credit toward a Bachelor of Science in Nursing would be given for the residency.
Final Project Outcome: The project leaders report that the project was successful in implementing interventions and activities to create a residency program applicable to all nursing settings (acute care, teaching hospital, community hospital, and long-term facility). A curriculum plan for three credit hours was created to apply as an elective towards a BSN degree. The plan includes an 8-week classroom experience with outside assignments that will add to the growth and development of the nursing unit in which they are placed. The outcome of increasing one year retention of new graduates could not be measured at time of reporting.

Florida Public Health Institute - Lantana, FL
Project Title: Strengthening the Public Health Nursing Workforce
Brief Description: In collaboration with public health agencies, nursing schools, and Florida medical and nursing leaders, Florida Public Health Institute (FPHI) has begun developing a broad public health nursing recruitment and retention plan. Components include innovative education, training, and mentoring opportunities; recruiting outreach to promote the value and image of nursing and attract more individuals to the field; and quantification of nursing workforce needs. In this project, FPHI will expand the impact of the annual Public Health Nursing Institute by providing materials and technical assistance so that other organizations may present it to students and professionals throughout the state.
Final Project Outcome: Five CE courses were created with the intention to offer these as free CE courses for public health nurses. The courses have been approved for CE credits for both the Florida and Alabama Departments of Health and the Institute plans to report monthly on course activity and passing rates. Information on the five course CE modules was presented to the Southeast Consortium of Health Departments and Children's Medical Services in August 2008 and was received with much enthusiasm. The courses can be viewed at www.flphi.org by clicking the icon on the bottom right entitled, "Earn Continuing Education Credits with Our Free Online Learning System." The Florida Public Health Institute aims to continue expanding this initiative to a more encompassing virtual training program for public health professionals.

Orlando Regional Healthcare - Orlando, FL
Project Title: Nurse Leader Role in Nurse Satisfaction and Retention: A Pilot Study
Brief Description: The clinical nurse leader (CNL) is a new nursing role developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to address clinical needs of nursing by placing a master's-prepared nurse at the bedside to facilitate and promote safe and effective patient care. With increased new graduates, complexity of patient care, and nurse retirement, the need to have this expertise exists. Orlando Regional Healthcare, in partnership with the University of Central Florida, is implementing this role on selected pilot units. The goal of this project is to evaluate the impact of the CNL role on nurse satisfaction, retention, and financial and patient outcomes.
Final Project Outcome: During the grant period, Orlando Regional Healthcare successfully created an organization-specific CNL® job description and implemented the role. The organization also created a CNL® steering committee composed of CNLs®, administrative staff, and an academic partner (UCF). Data was collected from six months prior to project implementation, during project implementation, and six months post-implementation. Because the study was still in process at the time of reporting and the grant period ended only six months after the CNL® position was implemented, data detailing the impact on satisfaction and retention was not complete. However, initial results showed an increase of retention for the study units and researchers saw significant anecdotal evidence of the potential of the CNL® role on improving retention and satisfaction. This project will continue to be implemented within the organization.

Pinellas County Health Department - St. Petersburg, FL
Project Title: Retaining Valued Public Health Nurses at the Pinellas County Health Department
Brief Description: This project concentrates on recruitment and retention of valued public health nurse through 1) advertising and marketing, 2) a centralized nursing recruitment/hiring/retention office, and 3) a two tract nurse mentoring program. Pinellas County Health Department (PinCHD) will build and maintain a strong nurse workforce by advertising in areas rich with English/Spanish speaking nurses. PinCHD will build a healthier work environment for new and experienced nurses. An innovative nurse mentoring program will be piloted focusing on mentoring for the new and existing nurses in the agency.
Final Project Outcome: The agency implemented the project with great success. Goals for satisfaction with the Tract 1 nurse mentoring program were exceeded by 24% and data also demonstrated numerous increases from baseline in the Job Satisfaction Survey; the three greatest areas that showed improvement were staffing, ability to be creative, and morale. The most significant outcome of the project was a 17.9% decrease from the baseline turnover rate at the end of the grant, which surpassed the goal of 5% below baseline turnover rate. On December 3, 2008 the mentoring project was presented at the annual statewide Public Health Nursing Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL.

Shands Jacksonville Medical Center - Jacksonville, FL
Project Title: Charge Nurse Leadership Development Program
Brief Description: Our Charge Nurse Leadership Development Program will address four critical skills needed by charge nurses: 1) supervision and delegation, 2) communication, 3) conflict resolution, and 4) team building. Program success will be measured by: a) decreased charge nurse turnover, b) decreased overall RN turnover, c) improved RN job satisfaction, d) improved RN-RN interaction, e) improved teamwork between co-workers, and f) improved patient satisfaction with overall quality of nursing care.
Final Project Outcome: Shands Jacksonville Medical Center created project materials including a facilitator guide and participant manual for the Charge Nurse Leadership Development program; these tools can be accessed at Shands - Professional Development. The program was implemented with 128 program participants and data collected nine months after implementation demonstrated that 121 were still employed as charge nurses at the organization, yielding a 94.53% retention rate. Improvements in satisfaction were being evaluated against pre-implementation data at time of reporting.

Shands at University of Florida - Gainesville, FL
Project Title: Development of a Toolkit to Promote Nurse Self Care and Self Advocacy
Brief Description: Nurses are challenged to maintain resilience against burn-out and develop successful coping skills in the work environment. This project will develop a comprehensive program to alert nurses to the risks of cumulative stress and provide training for self-care promotion to minimize the negative effects of compassion fatigue. A traumatologist consultant who specializes in helping other front line workers with secondary distress will provide content expertise. We will also pursue inclusion of education on this topic in nursing school curricula, hospital orientation, continuing education programs, and long term as a requirement for re-licensure of nurses in Florida.
Final Project Outcome: The toolkit was developed and piloted as a component of an IRB-approved research study. The organization consulted with a traumatologist to develop a toolkit (the "Prosperity Plan") to promote nurse self-care and self-advocacy. Based on the traumatologist's recommendations, a life coach model was also implemented. Preliminary results comparing pre- and post-tests showed positive results and significant improvements in Life Satisfaction scores. Further, interviews with program participants indicated that the program was viewed as a positive experience that gave many insights in how to handle stressors both personally and professionally. Based on this project, compassion fatigue education is now a permanent part of the organization's curricula for the internal core resource nurse course.

Tampa General Hospital - Tampa, FL
Project Title: Promoting a Healthy Work Environment for Medical-Surgical Nurses by Implementing a Campaign to Encourage Work Breaks
Brief Description: The goal of this project is to increase satisfaction of medical-surgical nurses through an awareness campaign addressing a healthy work environment focusing on the importance of taking a break. Funds will be utilized to hire marketing experts to develop a slogan and implement the campaign through posters, fliers and keepsake reminders. Nurses will be immersed with the campaign in an attempt to place value on the importance of breaks. Progress will be monitored through unit based assessments, workforce indicators as well as National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators' Nursing Satisfaction Surveys.
Final Project Outcome: The organization created and implemented a campaign, distributing posters and break timers throughout each of the clinical units and training 369 staff members within the division on the Break Buddy system. For new hires, training now occurs during divisional orientation and unit-based orientation. Post-implementation data revealed significant decreases in the RN vacancy rate for the division, worked hours (includes supplemental staffing pool and rotational nurses) vacancy rate for the division, and annual cumulative turnover rates. Post-implementation payroll data indicated improvements in the percentage of nurses unable to sit down for a meal, the percentage of nurses "free of patients during their meal break," and percentage of nurses reporting a meal break greater than or equal to 30 minutes. Improvements were also seen in several areas of the NDNQI® RN Satisfaction scores for the Acute Care Division, including practice environment scale and job enjoyment scale.

University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Project Title: Work Experiences of Newly Licensed RNs in Florida and Retention Strategies
Brief Description: This study aims to contribute to an understanding of the demographic characteristics, perceived work environment, job satisfaction and intent to stay, and occupational commitment and intent to stay of newly licensed registered nurses (RNs), and relationships between these factors. A large random sample of newly licensed RNs in Florida will be surveyed using an instrument developed in 2006 by Kovner and Brewer, supplemented with Occupational Commitment and Intent to Leave Scales developed in 1985 by Blau. Results will build upon a national longitudinal study being conducted by Kovner and Brewer, and will provide Florida-specific information regarding retention of new RNs.
Final Project Outcome: The survey was sent to a random sample of 40% (n=3,027) of RNs who were newly licensed in Florida in 2006 and had a response rate of 18%. The research findings strongly suggested that work environment is the most important factor in job and occupational retention of RNs. Data from the report indicated that incorrect instructions, lack of supervisor support, inadequate help from others, and organizational rules and procedures should be the focus of work environment issues needing improvement. Retention strategies should also focus on workload and time pressures, which were also significantly related to retention.

Workforce Central Florida - Lake Mary, FL
Project Title: Are You Man Enough to be a Nurse
Brief Description: A marketing campaign to recruit men into nursing which will be targeted at young men in secondary and post-secondary educational institutions along with men looking to make a career change in Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Sumter counties.
Final Project Outcome: Through distribution of flyers, posters, and DVDs as well as through an I-4 billboard ad, the campaign was successful in increasing awareness and generated extensive hits to the PHC website and coverage of the campaign on WESH news, the Orlando Sentinel, Seminole Insight, The Florida Nurse, and additional smaller media websites. Seminole Community College (SCC) reported an increase in the number of men declaring nursing as a major, with the number increasing from 32 in the fall of 2007 to 58 in the fall of 2008. Additionally, Workforce Central Florida documented over 3,000 "unique page views" to the PHC website. This project will continue through distributing additional flyers to area schools and maintaining the campaign website.