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Background: There is an urgency to retain nurses globally. Evidence has shown that nurse residency programs promote retention of new graduate nurses. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the impact of nurse residency programs longitudinally., Aim: To evaluate the impact of a transition-to-practice program on new graduate nurses' practice confidence and job satisfaction over 24 months., Design: A retrospective longitudinal study., Setting: A 1200-bed public tertiary academic hospital., Participants: New graduate nurses from local universities who joined the hospital and were enrolled in the Graduate Nurse Residency Program (n = 104)., Methods: The program was conducted for 24 months and consisted of modules on bedside knowledge and skills, and a mentorship program with senior nurse leaders. Practice confidence and job satisfaction were measured using the Casey-Fink graduate nurse experience survey. The survey was administered four times over the 24 months as part of the program. Data was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA., Results: Practice confidence increased and job satisfaction decreased over the 24 months. Practice confidence total score at 6 months and an extended probation period were factors associated with attrition during the 24-month clinical practice., Conclusions: This is the first longitudinal study to demonstrate the impact of a transition-to-practice program in a multiethnic Asian setting. The Graduate Nurse Residency Program enhanced the practice confidence of new graduate nurses., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Aim: Develop and test an instrument to measure graduate-nurses' perceptions of a structured mentorship program., Background: New graduate nurses may experience difficulties in the transition from student to practitioner. Mentoring is commonly used to support graduates. However, there is a lack of published tools measuring graduate nurses' perceptions of mentorship. As mentoring is resource intensive, development and testing of a validated tool are important to assist in determining program effectiveness., Methods: A pretest-posttest interventional design was used. Following a critical review of literature and content experts' input, the 10-item National University Hospital Mentorship Evaluation (NUH ME) instrument was tested with a convenience sample of 83 graduate nurses. Psychometric tests included internal reliability, stability, content validity, and factor analysis. Changed scores were evaluated using paired samples t-test., Results: Seventy-three graduates (88%) out of a possible 83 completed the pre-and post-program survey. Internal reliability was excellent with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.92. Test-retest reliability was stable over time (ICC=0.81). Exploratory factor analysis supported a 1-factor solution explaining 58.2% of variance. Paired samples t-test showed statistical significance between the pre- and post-program scores (p<0.001)., Conclusions: The NUH-ME measure was found to be valid and reliable. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the tool with different groups of nursing graduates is required. Mentorship programs can be an effective recruitment and retention strategy, but are also resource intensive. Measuring new graduates' perceptions of mentoring contributes to program relevance in addressing their personal, professional and clinical skill development needs. As mentoring engages a diverse range of mentors, feedback through measurement may also positively alter organizational learning culture., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)