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Ms. Green is Clinical Nurse Education Specialist, New Nurse Orientation Coordinator (retired), Nursing Practice and Professional Development, University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
The author has disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Currently, many nurses attending general new nurse orientation programs are accustomed to a fast-paced, highly technological world, where audio and visual stimulation is constant ( Baid & Lambert, 2010 ). To maintain their interest in learning, various teaching strategies must be designed and implemented by educators to keep the new nurses meaningfully engaged in the learning activities while they learn their new role.
The literature is replete with data suggesting that new nurse orientation is the first step in the retention of new staff. Well-designed programs make the new hire feel welcome and have an influence on his or her attitude about the culture of the new organization and how it demonstrates commitment to patient care ( Allen, 2011 ; Lott, 2006 ; Ragsdale & Mueller, 2005 ). Although retention is certainly important, the focus of this article is on the redesign of a general new nurse orientation program to include interactive, fun, and varied teaching strategies to keep the newly hired nurse engaged while learning.
General new nurse orientation has traditionally been perceived as a program consisting of hours of passively receiving information from a succession of presenters who address the organization's policies, procedures, and other regulatory matters related to nursing practice. Although still essential, those traditional topics, including the strategies used to teach them, have not changed much over the past 60 years, despite many changes in the way nurses deliver care in the clinical setting ( Kennedy, Nichols, Halamek, & Arafeh, 2012 ; Kostovich & Clementi, 2014 ).
Background
General new nurse orientation is held every 2 weeks at the author's organization. Classes consist of a mix of both experienced nurses and new graduates. Although the participant evaluations from the previous program design were rated positively, the clinical nurse education specialists and other content expert presenters indicated that many of the new nurses were disengaged during the presentations, even when encouraged to participate. For example, a small percentage continued to use their smart-phones, despite being asked to store them away during class, or they...