Online Program

330551
UHC/AACN Nurse Residency Program Retention and Racial Disparities


Monday, November 2, 2015

Luis Rodriguez Gonzalez, MD, DrPH, MPH, RN, Department of Public Health and Management, School of Health Sciences and Practice of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY
Hospitals incur significant cost because of high turnover of nurses in first-year employment. The UHC/AACN Nursing Residency Program (NRP) was developed to help address this issue and has increased retention to impressive rates in participating institutions. However, racial disparities within the program and possible factors driving the higher retention rates haven’t been studied. The program tenets aim to reduce stress and increase satisfaction in first-year employment; therefore, this study investigated the association between ethnicity and stress/satisfaction factors with program retention. The participants were subdivided into two cohorts: ethnic minorities and non-Hispanic whites and analyzed using a two-proportion z-test. Ethnicity and stress/satisfaction data collected through the NRP’s end of program survey were then analyzed using logistic regression. The difference in retention between minorities (94.2%) and non-Hispanic white cohorts (96.1%) was highly statistically significant (p< 0.001). In terms of factors, the odds of retention were found to increase by 52.19% and 36.77% when going from not satisfied to being satisfied with job responsibilities (p< 0.001) and salary (p< 0.001), respectively. For stress in personal life, the odds of retention decrease by 21.89% when going from having no stress to having stress (p= 0.003). Finally, the odds of retention increased by 40.32% (p< 0.001) when going from the minority group to the non-Hispanic white group. These study results suggest racial disparities are present in NRP retention and that the tenets of the NRP focusing on reducing stress and increasing satisfaction may be a promising tactic to tackle retention issues in the nursing profession.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Administration, management, leadership
Advocacy for health and health education
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Identify first year nursing employment retention rates and racial disparities along with factors influencing the results in the UHC/AACN Nursing Residency Program. Link five indicators that can help decrease nursing student undergraduate attrition and decrease first year nurse turnover.

Keyword(s): Nursing Education, Minority Research

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: DrPH Doctoral Dissertation Defense approved 2/10/15; MPH in 2010 and awarded the SHSP of NYMC 2010 Outstanding Thesis Award; Have ten accredited publications; Received an MD degree in 1977 NYMC, Specialty in Obstetrics and Gynecology Downstate SUNY Medical Center in 1981; Specialty Practice for 28 years; Currently, also in last semester of Nursing (schedule to take NCLEX in June or July of 2015. Finally, involve in community youth interventional research federally funded program.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.