Achievement Awards Spotlight: Pennsylvania Hospital

August 23, 2024

HAP's annual Achievement Awards honor hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care. The Achievement Awards showcase and share member hospitals’ and health systems’ successful programs and best practices.

This year, Pennsylvania Hospital received the Workforce Innovators Award for its project to support new-to-practice registered nurses who work the night shift.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The opportunity:  The hospital identified an opportunity for a new program to support new-to-practice registered nurses who work the night shift, focusing on real-time clinical support, professional development, and well-being.
  • The program, developed by the director of nursing education, supports newer nurses after their orientation period, while addressing challenges that lead to turnover and a reliance on temporary staffing.
• Key challenge:  New-to-practice registered nurses who experience higher levels of stress during the transition period are more likely to think about leaving their role. Those with less than a year of experience also have the highest turnover rates among nurses, the team noted.
• Taking action:  The Clinical Nurse Ambassador program features five experienced nurses who support the clinical and well-being of nurses on the night shift.
  • Each ambassador is assigned to work one shift per week where they round on clinical nursing units and focus on support for new hires.
  • The ambassadors provide shoulder-to-shoulder support by responding to clinical emergencies, facilitating skills education, validating competencies, and bringing other key resources to the night shift.
  • They also are a key resource for peer emotional support, sleep strategy education, and facilitating social activities on night shift.
• Strong results:  The program led to immediate results, helping to reduce nurse turnover and the use of temporary registered nurse hires during 2023.
  • The ambassadors also expanded the scope of services and education to include competency for peripheral IV placement, clinical emergencies, code cart education, and rounding with new products.
• Quotable:  “Additionally, by focusing on the well-being, clinical practice, and retention of nurses on the night shift, where resources and support are often limited, the program directly targeted an area where marginalized staff and patients are most likely to experience disparities in care,” the team noted in its entry.

Congratulations to Pennsylvania Hospital for its outstanding efforts to support new-to-practice nurses. Learn more about the project online.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.