Nationally, the turnover rate for hospital nurses is 22.5 percent, according to 2023 data from NSI Nursing Solutions. At an Advocate hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., that rate is about 10 percent.
The chief nursing officer and vice president of Advocate Christ Medical Center, Giancarlo Lyle-Edrosolo, DNP, RN, told Becker's this success is thanks to efforts that build confidence among new nurses.
The health system runs a nurse residency program that pairs first-year nurses with mentors to set expectations and develop professionally, such as learning to have difficult conversations.
"We make sure that they have the appropriate time with the preceptors to apply, so that as a new nurse, you're not stressed out going into a unit thinking, 'Is my license in jeopardy? Am I going to harm a patient today?'" Dr. Lyle-Edrosolo said. "We try to mitigate that and build their confidence."
Some anxiety can be helpful for new nurses, he added, but nurse leaders should help manage that stress to ensure new staff members assimilate well into their working environment. This support is crucial as healthcare leaders brace for an exodus of seasoned nurses in the next five to 10 years.
Dr. Lyle-Edrosolo joined Christ Medical Center in December 2022 after nearly four years of being CNO of Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. He currently leads more than 2,000 nurses and 1,000 healthcare workers at the four-time Magnet-certified hospital. His hospital strives for a 1:1 nurse-to-preceptor ratio — while sometimes conceding to a 2:1 ratio because of sick days — during the orientation process.
At Christ, first-year nurses and their preceptors are matched based on the new nurse's intended field of practice. For example, new intensive care unit nurses and labor and delivery nurses are partnered with seasoned nurses in their respective departments, Dr. Lyle-Edrosolo said.
"Depending on the specialty that they practice in, they have intentional items that they need to tend to," he said, "because a nurse is not a nurse is not a nurse."