Setting New Grad Nurses on the Path to Success

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Cultivating Care has a unique business model. We provide professional preceptors to orient your new graduate nurses at the bedside from day one through week thirteen utilizing our customizable curriculum. We exist to rebuild units that lack the core staff needed to adequately train new nurses and, as a result, are stuck with chronically poor staffing.

Cultivating Care preceptors can be contracted individually for single orientees or as a group, with several preceptor/orientee pairs orienting simultaneously on the same unit. We have found that when new grads are oriented around the same time, they can easily be taught to work together, bounce ideas off each other, and learn from each other’s experiences, resulting in improved retention and reduced burnout for the entire group of new nurses. 

Cultivating Care can also fill other orientation needs such as training travel nurses. We can even provide remedial training for nurses who are still struggling to manage their workload or adjust to the demands of nursing.

Cultivating Care’s new grad orientation curriculum is divided into three distinct phases that are designed to ensure each new grad orientee is practicing safely before they are practicing independently. The three phases are “Side-by-Side,” “Hands-Off Supervision,” and “Independent Practice.” The preceptor’s teaching style and level of supervision changes in each phase to meet the needs of the orientee as they develop in their ability to exercise sound judgment and provide safe nursing care. Each phase includes learning tools that can be individualized to each orientee’s preferences and to the needs of the unit they’re on. 

During each phase, our preceptors focus on developing in our orientees what we call the three pillars of safe nursing practice: critical thinking, time management, and interpersonal skills. Achieving competency in these three areas is vital to building a foundation of safe practice in our new nurses. Because critical thinking is the most challenging of these categories to learn, and because a nurse cannot practice safely without it, the criteria for progressing through the program is based on the development of an orientee’s critical thinking skills. 

Learning tools in phase one focus on helping the new grad orientee establish a routine for their shift. They will learn to develop thorough and accurate assessment skills and categorize assessment findings and other clinical data as stable or unstable and chronic or acute. Working side-by-side with their preceptor, they will have the benefit of seeing great nursing care, time management, and prioritization role-modeled.

Learning tools in phase two help the orientee develop a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s present illness and active problems. With help from their preceptor, the orientee will determine appropriate goals for each of their patients and execute the interventions needed to achieve those goals. The orientee will take the lead in patient care while the preceptor provides constant feedback and engages the orientee in critical thinking discussions. The new grad is encouraged to think independently and discuss their decisions with their preceptor, as well as to draw on the expertise of other members of the healthcare team. 

Near the end of phase two and into phase three, the preceptor will assist the orientee in completing unit projects. Unit projects will develop the orientee’s awareness of the needs of their unit by learning the roles of their charge nurse, their techs, the unit secretary, and other members of the healthcare team as able. The preceptor will also prepare the orientee to respond to emergencies, orient them to their unit’s crash cart, and take them to rapids and codes when appropriate. As the orientee becomes more independent, their orientation goal will be to learn how to utilize all of the resources your facility has to offer and how to work effectively as a member of the healthcare team.

A new grad nurse’s critical thinking, time management, and interpersonal skills are evaluated by the preceptor using a phase-specific evaluation tool, and the orientee must be consistently performing all safety imperatives for that phase before being approved to progress in the program. The safety imperatives are simply a phase-specific checklist of things an orientee must be doing every time they perform a given skill and is customizable to the needs of the unit and your facility. It is the primary way that we can demonstrate that our orientees are practicing safely and are ready to become more independent.

Cultivating Care preceptors produce competent new graduate nurses who will be an asset to their unit rather than a liability. These nurses will be resilient to burnout because they will be taught to provide compassionate nursing care both effectively and efficiently. Of new grad nurses that have completed our program, all have completed or exceeded their initial contracts at their home facilities, and all have gone on to work in critical care or specialty units. Visit our contact page here to get connected with a member of our team and discuss how Cultivating Care can benefit your facility.