St. Francis nurse mentoring program reduces turnover, serves as model

Results appear in The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing

INDIANAPOLIS – While many hospitals today struggle against high turnover rates and decreasing job satisfaction among their nursing ranks, St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers has developed a successful approach to reverse those trends.

In 2005, St. Francis was experiencing a 16.6 percent turnover among its registered nurses, and that rate among first-year RNs had skyrocketed to 32 percent. Those alarming statistics far exceeded the average turnover rates reported by the American Journal of Nursing and related national polling of nurses.

Led by the hospital’s vice president and chief nursing officer and directors and managers from education, human resources and other nursing areas, St. Francis in 2006 created a nurse mentoring program to address the retention issue.

Since that time, the turnover rate has plummeted to levels lower than national averages and other hospitals in central Indiana, according to an article in the The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing (July 2010).

“We began the pilot program by pairing 12 protégés (new hires) with 12 experienced nurses working in select nursing units,” said author Kathy Fox, R.N. “In matching the pairs we took into account several factors, such as having them assigned on the same shifts, education levels, generational compatibilities, and personality types.”

Fox, who directs Education Department at St. Francis, says the paramount matching factor is communication.

“They should have excellent communication skills and demonstrate the willingness to share knowledge,” wrote Fox, who directs educational services at St. Francis. “Communicating with a protégé in a non-judgmental way is another important attribute. Mentors were available to answer questions, such as getting along with a co-worker or how to insert an IV.”

Structure is vital to the nurse mentoring at St. Francis. After an initial and intense one-day training session, participants sign a contract formally sealing their relationship. In doing so, they understand what is expected of them, such as meeting regularly, filing reports, and evaluating and measuring progress.

A pay incentive is provided to mentor nurses who participate in the program based upon the retention of protégés, primarily staying with the same unit they worked that first year.

“While the bonus was a positive reinforcement for what mentor nurses gave to the program, they did not base their participation on the incentive alone,” Fox wrote. “Most mentor nurses were not aware of the available bonus until they attended the initial training seminar.”

The pilot program exceeded all expectations. All 12 of the mentored nurses chose to stay with St. Francis. By 2009, 200 nurse protégés have been matched with 125 mentors at St. Francis.

And the program spawned success among experienced registered nurses, where turnover fell to 16.6 percent – a rate that has continued to plummet to its current level of 10.3 percent. That is at a level consistent with other hospitals around the country with formal mentoring programs.

Finally, Fox said overall job satisfaction has improved measurably based on surveys of nurses participating in the program.

The mentoring program – which is now an established part of the process in the hiring of new nurses – has expanded to other departments such as respiratory, radiology, physical and occupational therapies and the pharmacy departments.

The St. Francis approach has earned the respect of other local hospitals. St. Vincent Hospital and Community Hospitals of Indianapolis have since built nurse mentoring programs based on the St. Francis model.

The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing is a monthly publication providing original, peer-reviewed articles on continuing nursing education. To learn more about it, go to http://www.jcenonline.com.

To view how two mentoring participants view their experience, go to www.stfrancishospitals.org/Nursing/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=120 More information about nursing careers at St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers is at www.stfrancishospitals.org/nursing.