NUR 3561 – Deliverable 6 – Disseminate An Innovation Proposal

The Lewin change theory was developed by Kurt Lewin, who describes organizational change by the stages of an ice block. Lewin developed the following steps: Unfreeze, change, refreeze. The unfreezing stage symbolizes the need for a change. The change phase is pretty self-explanatory and represents the change itself that needs to be made. Finally, the refreeze stage represents the successful completion of the change (Woten & Karakashian, 2021). This SWOT analysis will incorporate the Lewin change theory related to the need to retain new nurses.

According to Heering and Mennella, in 2018, the turnover rate for new nurses was 30-60%. As a result, today, our healthcare system continues to face an ever-growing nurse shortage. Organizations have already stepped into Ledwins’s first phase of change unfreeze by identifying the nurse shortage and the need for better retention. Organizations have also followed Ledwins’s second phase, change, by offering sign-on bonuses, better wages, and mentorships to elicit new nurses to stay. Ledwins final stage of refreezing has yet to be completed despite some changes being made; the nursing field continues to be challenged and requires additional changes to retain nurses. The refreeze stage continues to be a work in progress for most healthcare organizations.

Proposal of change: Onboarding of new nurses will include individualized mentor selection and extending the amount of training time to 6 months with the mentor: competitive wages and well-educated management.

Some strengths organizations have in retaining new nurses.

Strengths in place to retain new nurses including competitive wages and an advanced mentoring program with the support of a transformational leader.

Weaknesses organizations have in retaining new nurses.

 A significant weakness organizations have is horizontal bullying. After graduating from a nursing program, new nurses are vulnerable to peer bullying from established or older nurses. New nurses are expected to graduate from nursing school and, the next day, be able to function as a nurse with 20 years of experience. It can be a daunting task for an experienced nurse to work with a new graduate. One study reports that an organization’s policies regarding workplace bullying are minimally enforced at just 43%(Weaver, 2013).