Outcomes of Mentoring Interventions for New Graduate Nurses

New graduate nurses report lack of support as a key antecedent of their turnover intent within their first year of employment. Mentoring interventions are one way to foster support and socialization of newcomers. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of two different mentoring interventions (one-on-one versus group mentoring) on new graduate nurse turnover using the theory of job embeddedness as the framework for analysis. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory comparative cross sectional design study of 2032 new graduate nurses who completed a formalized nurse residency program between 2007 and 2010. Two proxy measures were used to assess job embeddedness. Forward stepwise regression was used to analyze the data. Results demonstrated that one on one mentoring actually lowers new graduate nurses’ perceptions of group cohesion and work empowerment while mentor circles (group mentoring) have a positive effect. Findings also indicate that group cohesion, work empowerment, and mentor circles are all significantly associated with turnover intent. With the prospect of the continued nursing shortage, it is critical that nurse leaders invest in evidence based interventions to increase new graduate nurse retention. Mentor circles appear to be an intervention worth exploring.