Developing Graduate Nurses in the ICU: From Weakest Link to Competent Bedside Leaders

Novice nurses require new skills to clutch them as they lead and provide patient care in the ICU where it is filled with increasingly multifaceted patient diagnoses. Our ICU needed a strategy to develop graduate nurses in the ICU to competent bedside leaders. The intensive care units (ICU) often must hire new graduate nurses into their orientation/residency programs. We would like to share with you how our intensive care unit was able to develop graduate nurses to progress through roadblocks toward a journey of growth and competence in collaboration with the Versant Residency program. The well thought-out strategies we considered throughout their leadership journey at the bedside included: (1) completion of the critical care academy; (2) married-state partnerships (3) bi-weekly evaluation meetings with the leadership team, preceptor and preceptee; and (3) evaluation meetings. The evaluation meetings consist of discussion about patient assignments; review of completed competencies and goals; reviewing the progression of critical thinking along with documentation and leadership skills at the bedside; assessing the preceptee\u27s strengths and weaknesses when collaborating and delegating to the healthcare team; and discussion of challenges, roadblocks, and setting new goals