Many hospitals are seeing nurse staffing levels stabilize after several years marked by significant shortages. While a welcome trend for the nation's healthcare system, it presents a new challenge.
"The move towards stabilization in the nursing workforce — that's real, that's true," said Marie Foley-Danecker, DNP, RN, vice president and chief nursing officer at Hackensack Meridian Health Ocean University Medical Center in Brick Township, N.J.
For hospital leaders, the challenge that comes in tandem is ensuring their organizations are set up to support the needs of a rising novice population of nurses, she told Becker's. The influx of younger nurses entering the workforce in recent years and the exit of more tenured nurses has shifted the median age of the nation's RN workforce from 52 in 2020 to 46 in 2022, according to data from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing's latest national report.
"It's not just you're hiring a nurse for today, but understanding that growth is going to be the expectation, and do we have those supports and resources in place for nurses to grow so that we can retain them in this environment, in whatever specialty or area of practice they move into," Dr. Foley-Danecker said.
Multiple surveys point to younger nurses' desire for professional development and mentorship opportunities. In March, the American Nurses Foundation published results from a survey that found 80% of early-tenure nurses reported mid- and most-tenured nurses were "great resources to learn from," while more than 75% of more experienced nurses said they enjoy mentoring younger peers.
Such findings point to an opportunity for hospitals to go beyond traditional nurse residency programs and think creatively about what they're doing to provide bedside nurses with innovative skill sets that support their professional development and, ultimately, retention, Dr. Foley-Danecker said.
On this front, Hackensack Meridian Health is launching a new nurse science fellowship in November in which bedside nurses will have the opportunity to learn performance and quality improvement skills under a doctorally prepared nurse scientist. Systemwide, 50 applicants have been accepted into the inaugural cohort, including 10 at Ocean University Medical Center.
As part of the program, nurses learn skills to tackle a quality improvement initiative in their own clinical area. They work on their project for up to a year, receiving training on everything from determining the scope of the project, to analyzing data, reporting on outcomes and determining whether to implement the initiative in other areas.
"Empowering nurses to gain that skillset and then seeing the outcomes of their work is invaluable," Dr. Foley-Danecker said. "They will have a project under their belt … that will be a nice resume booster."