Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | June 24, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 17 it is today. ough she said the residency has seen several iterations throughout the years, there's been one stabilizing factor. "e one thing that has remained constant for the last almost 20 years is that new grads need support, right? ey're smart people, they survived nursing school, they passed the boards. It's really the emotional aspect and connecting the dots of what they learned in school to what it looks like in an aca- demic medical center," Uttaro said. e shock novice nurses can experi- ence aer being thrown onto units with very sick patients in a complex health- care system can lead to them deciding it's not the field for them, said Uttaro. "You superimpose really sick patients and a really dynamic environment and the inexperience that you have as a new nurse, it really is like a perfect storm in a lot of ways," she said. Nurses in 2024 are experiencing a myriad of issues that either weren't there in previous decades or have been greatly exacerbated, said Schildmeier, of MNA. Staffing cuts, unsafe patient assignments, a growing mental health crisis, and in- creased workplace violence all contrib- ute to nursing burnout. "We've got a whole generation of nurses who don't know what they don't know. ere's not enough staff with the time to help them find out what they don't know, and so they're out there in an environment of sink or swim," he said. "And too many of them are sinking, and being burnt out and leaving much too early." Burning, burning, gone Between the six to nine month mark is when many nurses start to become overwhelmed, questioning if they've made the right career decision, said Uttaro. "at's why we have lots of pieces of our program that are threaded through- out so we stay connected to them. So when they get to that moment, where I'm like 'I'm tagging out. is is not for me, I can't believe I signed up,' there's somebody right there saying 'You got this, let's go have a cup of coffee, let's figure this out. What you're experienc- ing?'" Uttaro said. Having a community can prevent burnout from happening in the first place, said Xhemalallari, the registered nurse in the UMMC New Grad pro- gram. "at's why I wanted to pick a program where I knew that the people around me were going to make me feel safe, were going to make me feel like there were no stupid questions. And that's exactly what I found at UMass," she said. When choosing a residency program, Xhemalallari was already familiar with the New Grad program having done clinicals at UMMC and worked on the inpatient floor specializing in neurology and neurosurgery as patient care assis- tant while in college, the same floor she works on now. She had seen the quality of nurses graduating from the residency, helping solidify her decision to apply for the program. "I really wanted a program that at the end was going to produce a well-round- ed nurse as opposed to someone who just knows how to pass meds or knows how to document an assessment on their patient," she said. Along with the community aspect of the residency, Xhemalallari said the opportunity to brush up on skills with her cohort has been instrumental to her success in nursing thus far. From learning about different kinds of oxygen, to telemetry tests, to acting out and practicing having difficult conversations with coworkers, she's grateful to have had more extensive training to prepare Busy nurse impact In late winter 2023, the Massachusetts Nurses Association labor union and Boston-based Beacon Research conducted a randomized poll of registered nurses in Massachusetts about the impact of receiving unsafe assignments, either due to staffing shortages or other issues. These were some of the most prominent impacts. 86% Have experienced a lack of time to properly comfort and assist patients and families 80% Are aware of a lack of time to educate patients and provide adequate discharge planning Percentage of nurses who experienced this problem Outcomes nurses have experienced or are aware of due to unsafe assignments 7 1% Are aware of patient re-admissions 70% Are aware of complications or other problems 59% Are aware of medical errors such as wrong medication 58% Are aware of longer hospital stays 49% Are aware of injury or harm 23% Are aware of the death of a patient Source: Massachusetts Nurses Association her for the dynamic environment that is the hospital floor. ough Xhemalallari is content with her unit, Uttaro said other residents may decide they want to shi their nursing focus as they move through the pro- gram, and that's okay. In fact, having the opportunity to get real-life experience with hands-on support so nurses can find their truest passions is one of the main benefits to the residency itself. "You need to start somewhere. Get your sea legs, learn as much as you can learn, and then, dream big and fig- ure out what the next chapter is," said Uttaro. W Madinah Xhemalallari, a Worcester State University graduate, has discovered having a support network of nurses helps her understand and work through some of the more difficult aspects of the profession. Teresa Decalles is about to complete her first year as a registered nurse for UMass Memorial Health. Decalles checks her patient assignment on her computer station and prepares for the start of her shift.

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