The Use of Checklists Among New Graduate Nurses in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit to Improve Patient Safety and Outcomes.

New graduate nurses (NGNs) in the intensive care unit have trouble learning standards of care essential to patient safety and outcomes. Two checklists were developed to help NGNs learn to consistently practice to the unit standards of care during orientation. NGNs were more consistently able to practice to the standards of care compared to a control group that had not utilized the checklists.