Meeting the Future of Nursing Report™ Recommendations: A Successful Practice-Academic Partnership

Purpose:
The goal was to implement a collaborative nurse internship program between a hospital and a university. The goal was to increase the number of BSN prepared, competent nurses who were satisfied with the internship and work environment, while demonstrating cost savings and preceptor satisfaction.

Relevance/Significance:
The 2016 conference focus states "quality care starts with optimal staffing." Quality outcomes are optimized when an organization has solid onboarding processes. The IOM Future of Nursing Report supports BSN prepared nurses in the acute care setting to facilitate outcomes for patient care. This internship creates an environment in which competent grads are prepared for the workforce, lending to higher quality care. This relates to exemplary work practices and nursing outcomes.

Strategy and Implementation:
A BSN internship program has been in place for seven semesters. This encompasses completion of acute care and community clinicals within the facility. Implementation focused on seven goals: Improve competencies of graduate nurses to assure safe patient care. Each intern was expected to complete the hospital's basic and department specific RN competencies prior to graduation. Determine satisfaction of nurse interns and preceptors. A modified Casey-Fink Graduate Nurse Experience survey was used to evaluate the nurse intern's satisfaction with the program and readiness for practice. Assure employment offers and increase the proportion of BSN prepared RNs. Determine if the program saved money (outcome variables were salaries, benefits, FTEs, and recruitment fees). Determine if improvements in graduate nurse's understanding of a patient's continuum of care occurred. Determine if improvements in RN retention to specific specialty areas occurred.

Evaluation:
Results were an increase in the proportion of BSN prepared nurses (Z = 2.44, p < .05), decreased orientation FTEs, and lower operating costs. The University experienced highly satisfied, competent, new graduate nurses. The interns averaged a 91.9% in-hospital RN competency rate. All interns accepted a RN position. Savings were $599,040 with 23.4 FTE savings times ten weeks (per two semesters).

Implications for Practice:
We are in the fourth year now of the internship program. Its success has led to higher NCLEX first time pass rates, higher retention rates, high cost savings, improved satisfaction of both preceptors and interns, and improved recruitment of graduate nurses.