Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Lillian Donnelly and Dr. Sarah Andre of Intermountain Health

Transcript

Lillian Donnelly and Dr. Sarah Andre of Intermountain Health · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:01
  The Becker's team is excited to announce the
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  launch of our new CFO and Revenue Cycle
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  Tune in for conversations with finance experts from
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  revenue cycle podcast wherever you listen to episodes.
• 0:24
  Welcome to the Becker's healthcare podcast. I'm Mariah
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  Taylor, assistant editor, and I'm thrilled to be
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  interviewing Lillian Donnelly,
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  program manager of nursing professional development, and doctor
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  Sarah Andre,
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  nurse residency
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  program coordinator at Intermountain Health St. Joseph Hospital
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  on the podcast today. Lillian and Sarah, thank
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  you so much for joining me. I talked
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  with Lillian not too long ago about group
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  mentoring and some of the impacts at St.
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  Joseph Hospital, and it's so exciting to be
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  able to sit down with you and just
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  dive a little bit deeper into it. So
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  let's start by giving me a rundown. Lillian,
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  How does group mentoring work at your system?
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  Well, St. Joseph's Hospital
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  initiated new grad nurse mentoring in 02/2018
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  with a lot of leadership support, and we've
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  been had a program
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  since then. It was individualized. It was one
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  to one mentoring, one mentor to one new
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  grad.
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  However, in 02/2022,
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  the composition of our workforce changed after COVID,
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  and we had up to 80%
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  of new nurses on our units, nurses with
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  less than two years
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  of experience, though we were a little hard
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  pressed to find mentors, to find the time
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  to mentor, and we had to come up
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  with a different program.
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  And after a literature search and a little
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  bit of research, I found group mentoring as
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  an option, brought it to my division, brought
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  it to my director. There was a lot
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  of support for it, so we began to
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  run with,
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  two pilot cohorts of our new group mentoring
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  program.
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  We had,
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  two cohorts using new graduates,
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  and we used a transition shock model as
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  our theory base.
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  We had nursing professional development practitioners. They were
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  the mentors for the pilot nurse mentorship program.
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  Their salary, they have professional nursing qualifications.
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  They have communication skills.
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  One of their roles is being a mentor,
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  and so they were just the perfect fit
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  to be mentors.
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  We familiarized
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  them with the transition to shock model so
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  that they would understand the transition from academia
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  to professional nursing practice,
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  and we had mentors lead group mentor sessions
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  on new graduate nurse education days in the
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  classrooms.
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  Currently, we now use nurse mentors instead of
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  nursing professional developmenters
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  because our mentees asked that they would have
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  mentors that were closer to their years in
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  nursing, someone with maybe three or four years
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  of nursing,
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  not a nursing professional development practitioner,
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  and they're compensated via our nursing professional development
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  program
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  with points. So they get points for mentoring
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  in their in their professional development portfolio.
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  The mentors listen to any experiences the new
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  graduate nurses encounter in their practice.
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  They encourage interactive and supportive discussions, and they
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  ensure that each session is a safe space
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  for the nurses to share their experiences.
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  The discussion center on the stages of the
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  model, doing,
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  being, and knowing.
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  We created standardized mentor memos,
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  evaluations,
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  resources to equip the mentors,
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  especially when we had peer mentors. We have
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  some microlearning for them, and we have some
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  modules online to train them in mentoring.
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  The nurse residency program coordinator, which is Sarah,
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  scheduled time and space for this program,
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  and we held one hour group mentor sessions
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  every other month throughout the twelve month program.
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  And during months with no scheduled meetings, the
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  mentors connect with their mentees via text messaging
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  to maintain the continuity of the mentor and
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  mentee relationship.
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  That's also something that the mentees
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  wanted to have. They wanted to have texting.
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  We originally started with visiting the unit
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  in between those meetings, and they want to
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  be texted. The mentor memos are completed after
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  each group session, so we get feedback.
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  Evaluations of the program are conducted at midpoint
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  and endpoints. And then we review the evaluations,
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  and then we revise the program accordingly.
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  Excellent.
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  When we talked a few weeks ago, one
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  of the things that impressed me most was
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  you told me that since implementing
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  this group mentoring,
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  nurse retention has risen to ninety seven percent,
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  which is just absolutely incredible.
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  So what was group mentoring's part in that
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  increase?
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  So group mentoring is just one aspect of
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  our transition to practice nurse residency program,
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  that affects our retention.
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  So along with the group mentoring, we also
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  incorporate
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  in person skills days, we do EVP projects
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  with poster presentations,
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  we do a lot with gamification,
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  and we try to include as many other
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  interactive activities as we can.
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  However, studies have shown that mentoring has been
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  linked to increased job satisfaction,
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  reduced turnover, and encouragement of career planning,
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  especially when we're working with new graduate nurses.
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  The group dynamic in our group mentoring provides
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  just collaborative learning environment,
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  provides emotional support,
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  knowledge sharing in the group, and anytime you
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  provide support and knowledge sharing, it contributes to
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  that retention.
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  So mentoring is a key element of our
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  culture,
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  but not just the only aspect
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  that helps our retention of new nurses.
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  I also ask the new grads to complete
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  a profile sheet on their first day of
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  class as a new grad, that just helps
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  assist their mentor in getting to know them.
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  We also talk about habit forming goals, so
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  those small short goals they can just do
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  in a couple weeks,
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  some reach goals that are maybe a month
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  or two out and then also stretch goals.
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  So looking at the long term of what
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  they want to do as a nurse, and
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  that also helps guide some conversations with their
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  with the mentee and mentor.
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  We also provide the mentors with icebreaker questions
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  that allow them to get to know their
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  mentees better and to to help establish that
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  psychologically
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  safe relationship between them.
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  And lastly, one of the questions that we
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  have our mentors ask the new grads is
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  what are you doing for your well-being?
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  The new graduate nurses appreciate the concern about
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  their well-being and not just their practice. Supporting
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  the health and well-being of nurses is one
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  of the key recommendations in the future of
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  nursing.
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  Twenty twenty through 02/1930
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  reports that we like to keep in the
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  forefront of our program.
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  Absolutely.
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  I love that.
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  How do you evaluate the effectiveness of group
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  mentoring, and what are some of those outcomes?
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  So one of the ways we evaluate the
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  effectiveness of our group mentoring program, and Lillian
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  had mentioned this at the beginning, was that
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  we take the feedback from our midpoint and
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  our end of the program evaluations.
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  Just looking at our qualitative data from that,
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  our evaluations show that the majority of our
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  new grads
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  agree that mentors are positive role models, and
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  they also agree that group mentoring provides the
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  positive impact, such as the support, the encouragement,
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  the beneficial
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  discussions, and contributes to their personal satisfaction as
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  nurses.
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  Hundred percent of our new grads in our
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  evaluations say that they have engaged in sharing
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  of nursing stories,
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  during their mentor sessions.
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  Nursing stories are an interactive learning method for
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  sharing learnings and experiences,
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  from experienced nurses
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  to the novice nurses.
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  One of the most striking responses, and I
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  believe it was recently that we got in
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  the feedback from a new graduate nurse,
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  was that it was a super impactful experience.
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  This program has become kind of near and
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  dear to mine and Lillian's hearts, and so
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  that was
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  a pretty profound
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  statement.
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  We've also been asked to continue mentoring into
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  year two of
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  their nursing journey, which is evidence that they
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  value the experience and they would like the,
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  continuation of the support.
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  Prior to 2022,
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  our first year new grad retention rate was
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  around
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  eighty five percent.
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  And just for comparison, the national average for
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  first year retention
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  of new graduate nurses is around seventy percent,
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  with an estimated
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  of thirty three percent of new grads leave
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  within the first year of their nursing career.
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  That's absolutely incredible.
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  And, clearly, you guys are doing something right
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  here because everybody is loving it. You're getting
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  such great feedback. But I'm curious, what strategies
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  are you implementing to sustain this program success
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  as the nursing workforce continues to evolve?
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  Well, we are soon going to send out
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  the March 2024 end of program
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  evaluation,
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  and that's our survey
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  that will look at our second year of
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  the peer group mentoring.
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  And as previously mentioned, we're considering incorporating second
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  year mentoring into the program
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  as requested by the new graduate nurses, but
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  we really need to think about what that's
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  going to look like and how it would
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  benefit them because it would look a little
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  different. We want to listen to their feedback,
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  and we wanna give them the support that
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  they need. We're also going to start assigning
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  two mentors per group,
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  to get some more interaction and more continuity.
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  One of the comments that the nurse graduate
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  nurses have provided
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  is that they value having the same mentor
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  for each session.
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  In response to those comments, having two mentors
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  assures us that if someone has to call
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  out sick, we're still gonna have that continuity.
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  There will always be a mentor that they
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  know and and feel comfortable with. And two
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  mentors will also help provide a more robust
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  discussion
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  and a better opportunity for relationships.
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  We feel we have enough experienced nurses interested
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  in group mentoring to fulfill these roles.
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  Another strategy we will be implementing is to
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  start surveying the new graduate nurses about the
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  discussion questions that they'd like to use in
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  the mentor sessions.
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  We'll obtain that information through discussion with them
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  and via the end of program evaluation.
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  Currently, we ask about their well-being practices in
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  each session, and we ask questions based on
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  the stages of the transition shock model. But
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  we wanna ensure that any of the questions
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  that we're using, any of these guided questions
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  are relevant to where they currently are in
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  their practice,
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  and that dementia discussions will continue to be
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  beneficial.
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  Sarah is always in touch with the new
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  graduate nurses. She's always there. She follows them
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  for a year. She hears their concern. She
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  hears their cares and addresses them. I precept
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  and mentor nursing students, and I work with
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  nursing programs.
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  And in that way, we continue to hear
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  the heartbeat of their needs and the changes
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  occurring in nursing training and in the nursing
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  practice on the units.
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  This, we realize, is a new generation of
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  nurses, and we need to change our programs
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  to accommodate their needs.
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  To ensure the success of our group mentoring
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  program, we also need to stay connected with
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  our new nurses, not just in the first
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  year, but also as they continue in their
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  practice and their careers. So we're both involved
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  in different councils, committees, and our nursing professional
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  development program
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  and rounding on the units, speaking to our
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  nurses,
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  and working with them so that we can
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  keep up to date on changes in workforce
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  and to assist them also in their career
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  ladder as they become more experienced.
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  Excellent. Well, this has been an amazing and
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  informative discussion. Thank you both so much for
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  joining me on the podcast today.