The Impact of Emergency Department RN Staffing on ED Patient Experience.

Introduction: Patient experience ratings are important to health care organizations from both a clinical and financial perspective. Studies examining the relationship between patient experience and nurse staffing are prevalent in the inpatient setting, but not as much is known about how staffing affects these ratings in the emergency department.

Methods: Using responses from 3,120 adult patients who visited the emergency department of a large academic medical center in the southeastern United States between March 1, 2015, and November 30, 2015, this study examined the relationships between ED RN staffing and patient experience ratings.

Using a mentorship program to recruit and retain student nurses.

The authors present a student nurse mentorship program designed to provide an experience that assists nursing students to transition more easily into competent nursing professionals. The outcomes to date have been encouraging, showing a decrease in turnover among mentorship participants. At little cost and with great benefit to the student, the mentor, and the hospital, the mentorship program is presented as a successful way to recruit and retain the brightest graduate nurses.

A clinical ladder program based on Carper's Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing.

Clinical and career ladder programs were popular adjuncts to recruitment and retention during the nursing shortage of the 1980s. Programs commonly used Benner's work as an organizing framework and typically used activities such as continuing education credit, committee participation, work experience, certifications, academic degrees, community service, and performance appraisal scores as criteria for advancement. The authors present a unique clinical ladder program based on Carper's Fundamental Patterns of Knowing in Nursing.