Are new graduate nurses in acute care settings who have access to

(Introduction)

Stress and burnout are common themes in the nursing profession. New graduate nurses can experience a difficult time transitioning from their schooling to the demands of a job in acute care. The nursing profession can be demanding and new nurses can often feel unequipped to manage all the required responsibilities and feel supported at work. Job satisfaction is important to ensure sustainability and there are also harmful impacts on patient care when nurses experience burnout or feel overwhelmed. Literature has shown that there are high turnover rates for new graduate nurses, linking this to stress and inadequate support in place. There is a great need to identify what will help nurses feel supported at their jobs and how to promote effective and sustainable working environments. This paper will aim to review the literature on this topic and address if establishing stress reduction programs and implementing supports has an impact on job satisfaction and retention amongst new graduate nurses. The research question that this paper aims to answer is: Are new graduate nurses in acute care settings (P) who have access to employer run stress reduction programs (I) compared with those without it (C ) at lower risk of resigning (O) over a 1 year period (T)?

Literature review

Several research articles were examined throughout our investigation of this topic. All proved that stress is a significant problem among newly graduated nurses. One, in particular, was a cross-sectional comparative study that surveyed 113 nurses who had recently graduated and entered the workforce in Sweden; This study aimed to define the stress new graduate nurses deal with and see if there were any correlations in the workplace. The study identified moderately high stress levels in new graduate nurses and incidentally discovered that 43% of their study sample had already changed jobs at least once after graduation, despite having only been in the work force for an average of 9 months. Stress levels were found to be significantly higher in acute care settings such as nurses working in surgical units or inpatient hospital medical units, compared to out-patient, non-hospital workplaces. Expanding on the probability of new nurses to change jobs, another study looked at how work-related stress impacts new graduate nurses intention to quit. The researchers, based out of a Michigan University, explain the importance of this research as 10% of the nursing workforce is comprised of new graduate nurses therefore loss of these individuals has significant financial and patient care implications for hospitals. The study surveyed 153 nurses who had graducated in the past 3 years and found that 31% of nurses had intention to quit their current job with a negative correlation between the stress scores and length of time since graduation. This emphasizes the importance of focusing specifically on new graduate nurse