By: Mariah Taylor – Becker’s Clinical Leadership
Cleveland Clinic has created a workforce retention program for patient care nursing assistants.
“Nursing assistants add so much to the patient and caregiver experience, and their work contributes significantly to patient outcomes,” Barb Zinner, DNP, RN, vice president and chief nursing officer at Garfield Heights, Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic Marymount Hospital, said in a July 9 system news release. “Retaining this indispensable group of caregivers is a top priority of Cleveland Clinic’s executive nurses.”
Nursing assistant roles face the highest turnover rates among healthcare positions; they are as high as 30% annually, according to a report released in May. For some, nursing assistant is a steppingstone to other positions, but there are many who have no desire to change careers.
Cleveland Clinic designed a retention program for these nursing assistants who want to remain in the role. The MAGNUS empowerment program, an education and training initiative for participants selected by their nurse manager or clinical director based on job performances, is designed by a systemwide nursing assistant task force.
Here are four ways the program is improving nursing assistant retention, according to the release:
1. Improving job clarity and creating support resources for potential, new and current nursing assistants.
2. Creating a shadowing experience for potential workers to learn about the job.
3. Refining nursing assistant clinical orientation practices for new employees and adding a precepting experience. The program also created a detailed orientation guideline with specific skill expectations for each day of the four-week orientation period.
4. Outlining role-related care standards, including a checklist for tasks such as changing/bathing, oral care, environment, and mobility.
“They provide the highest standard of compassionate care — often with more frequent patient interactions than any other caregiver,” Mary Beth Modic, DNP, APRN-CNS, a clinical nurse specialist of diabetes at the system, said in the release. “PCNAs establish trusting relationships with patients and their families and provide comfort and support. They also gain valuable insight about patients that the entire team can use to inform future care decisions.”
