Abstract | It Takes a Village: Collaborating to Improve First-Year Nurse Retention

Grady Health System of Atlanta is an 800-bed nationally acclaimed Level l trauma center, a Baby Friendly designation, and has a comprehensive burn center and an advanced comprehensive stroke center. Grady is a pillar in Georgia, renowned for healing the patients with formidable health conditions and caring for the indigent and underserved. The health system is responsible for training most of the practicing physicians in Atlanta. Grady is also a premier employer for graduate millennial nurses seeking a health system to begin and catapult their careers. Grady has a solid culture of serving others, providing the new millennial nurses an opportunity to fulfill their need to do meaningful work. Hundreds of applications for the nurse residency program are submitted annually. Typically, a potential nurse resident is euphoric if scheduled for an interview. They enter the organization victorious, grateful, joyous, eager, engaged and proud to be “Grady nurse.” However, early in 2016 a trend was identified: a substantial number of nurse residents were leaving the health system between six to 12 months of employment. Why the exodus? The organization failed to identify millennials as primary stakeholders and meet their needs. This article will focus on the collaborative leadership and cooperation that resulted in the restructuring and rejuvenation of the nurse residency program which in turn, improved first-year retention.

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