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Here They Come! Are You Ready?
by ANNA President Sandra Bodin
It
is getting to be that time again, when we welcome a new group of nurses
graduating from college. Very soon, they will begin looking for their
first nursing jobs in hopes of discovering long-term satisfying
nursing careers! Because passing the National Council of State Boards
of Nursing (NCSBN) NCLEX is usually the final step in the nurse
licensure process, the number of people passing the NCLEX is a good
indicator of how many new nurses are entering the profession in the
United States (U.S.) (NCSBN, 2006). The number of new nurses passing
the NCLEX and entering the profession in the U.S. in 2006 was 177,017.
With
a limited number of nurses entering the health care field, how are we
going to recruit our share for nephrology? I became a nephrology nurse
because I did a student internship in the dialysis unit and knew I
wanted to be just like those dialysis nurses! Not every student nurse
experiences caring for patients with kidney disease during their
clinical rotations and some never even get the chance to meet a
nephrology nurse. We must seize the opportunity to market our practice
to these energetic graduates so that they can learn about nephrology
nursing today.
Hallmarks for Nursing Graduates
How
do we know what experiences, benefits, and opportunities a new nurse
will require before he or she is willing to accept our job offer? It is
easy, if you simply look through the eyes of the new graduate nurse.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) (2002) has
created an interview tip sheet that identifies important considerations
nurses should use when selecting a place of employment. Colleges give
this document to senior nursing students to use as an evaluation tool
for potential employers and as a primer on how to select a healthy
workplace environment. AACN teaches students that finding the right
practice environment that values their education is essential to their
long-term success and job satisfaction as nurses.
How does your organization measure up against other health care
organizations for providing a good work environment to new nurses
interviewing potential employers? The AACN (2002) document, called
Hallmarks of the Professional Nursing Practice Setting: What Every
Nursing School Graduate Should Consider When Seeking Employment,
describes eight characteristics or hallmarks nursing graduates are
encouraged to examine.
Manifest a
philosophy of clinical care emphasizing quality, safety,
interdisciplinary collaboration, continuity of care, and professional
accountability. Provide a copy of your organization’s written
mission statement and focus on the emphasis placed on quality, safety,
interdisciplinary collaboration, continuity of care, and professional
nursing accountability. Be prepared to describe nursing’s input into
policy development and operations. During the interview, provide
information on the nurse to patient ratio and the available support
staff.
Recognize the value of nurses’ expertise on clinical care quality and patient outcomes.
Are advanced practice nurses available to support and enhance the work
of the staff nurses in clinical care? Be able to answer any questions
about recognition of professional development, educational preparation,
or certification with differentiated practice levels, roles, and pay
scales for nurses.
Promote executive level nursing leadership.
The new nurse may want information about the key responsibilities of
the top nurse executive. Do not be surprised if the interviewee
requests to see a copy of the job description or organizational chart.
Empower nurses’ participation in clinical decision-making and organization of clinical care systems.
Be ready to explain the amount of control nurses have in decisions
directly related to nursing practice and delivery of care. Describe the
patient population we serve; people with kidney disease. Do not assume
that the new graduate is aware of the complex issues facing our
patients and their families. During the discussion, describe in detail
the difference a nephrology nurse makes in the safety and outcomes of
his or her patients.
Demonstrate professional development support for nurses.
Your interviewee will want to learn about your professional development
program and the resources available for continuing education and
certification. Professional growth is important to nurses. Describe how
the staff in your department is able to facilitate career goals.
Maintain clinical advancement programs based on education,
certification, and advanced preparation. The new graduate will expect
that a mentor, consultant, or preceptor be available. Ideally, there
should also be opportunities to work in an interdisciplinary team.
Nephrology nursing has always benefitted by having strong
interdisciplinary teams in the clinical area, which is a great feature
to promote during the interview process.
Do you and your colleagues apply evidenced-based practice? Obtain a
copy of the Nephrology Nursing Standards of Practice and Guidelines for
Care (Burrows-Hudson & Prowant, 2005) and incorporate the standards
and guidelines into your daily practice. Do you provide leadership and
education opportunities by appointing nurses to serve on practice
committees and by scheduling case presentations? Describe your emphasis
on clinical outcomes and efficiency improvement. That is practically a
definition of nephrology nursing! Is your patient satisfaction
evaluated on a regular basis? Have the most recent survey results
available to share with the applicant.
Create collaborative relationships among members of the health care team. Graduate
nurses are interested in learning about your quality of patient care
and safety. Who is involved in reviewing this information? Be able to
describe the interdisciplinary committees that operate in you facility.
What disciplines are represented and what is nursing’s role in the
review process? Do Advanced Practice Nurses have privileges and are
they a part of the team? Point out that most dialysis facilities,
chronic kidney disease (CKD) clinics, acute care units, and transplant
centers include Nurse Practitioners and/or Clinical Nurse Specialists
on staff.
Utilize technological advances in clinical care and information systems.
Promote available electronic access to nursing information and health
care knowledge and research in the practice setting. Describe the
electronic health record system used, and any integration with other
clinical departments. Be prepared to state whether your practice is
supported by up-to date clinical care technology.
Make available other statistics and information AACN suggests graduate nurses request from potential employers.
What are you going to say when the interviewee asks about the RN
vacancy and RN turnover rates? Some dialysis facilities have turnover
rate over 50%. If yours is one of them, be prepared to describe what
improvements are being made to increase employee satisfaction and
retention rates. Other information you may want to provide is the
education mix of nursing staff, percentage of registry nurses used, and
a copy of the contract if the nurses are unionized. It is also a good
idea to have the results of your latest JCAHO report or Medicare survey
available to share.
Summary
In
the next few months, nearly 200,000 new nurses will enter the
profession in the U.S. We owe it to our nephrology nursing colleagues
and our patients to recruit the best and brightest nurses into our
practice. By providing new nurses with information about what we do and
the patients we care for, we can ensure the future of the specialty of
nephrology nursing.
Sandra Bodin, MA, RN, CNN
ANNA President
Member, Gitchee Gumee Chapter
References
American
Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2002). Hallmarks of the
professional nursing practice setting: What every nursing school
graduate should consider when seeking employment. Washington, DC:
Author. Retrieved April 27, 2007 from
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Publications/pdf/hallmarks.pdf.
Burrows-Hudson, S., & Prowant, B. (2005). Nephrology nursing
standards of practice and guidelines for care. Pitman, NJ: American
Nephrology Nurses’ Association
National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). (2006). Quarterly
examination statistics: Volume, pass rates & first-time
internationally educated candidates’ countries. Chicago: NCSBN.
Retrieved April 27, 2007 from https://www.ncsbn.
org/2006_NCLEX_Fact_sheet.pdf.
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