...number weekend, holiday, and monthly shift commitments to maintain work status.

Why develop a new p.r.n. work program? When nurses leave their inpatient work environment and nursing in general, there may be a stretch of a few to many years in which they have not practiced their professions. Nurses may be reluctant to reenter the workforce due to fears of inadequacy with technology, devices, current work practices, and customs. In addition, they may not desire a rigid work schedule that requires a minimum of work hours per day or shift and work days per week or month. To create new opportunities for nurses to reenter the workforce, a RN p.r.n. program must meet the needs of nurses who wish to make dual commitments to home and work; thus, the program must be flexible and include core orientation and initial/ongoing education to assure competence and timeliness of carrying out duties in a variety of work roles.

The Parent Shift program was the name given to the program we created to meet flexibility and education needs of nurses wishing to reenter the workforce but who do not desire to work a full shift of 8 or 12 hours, commonly associated with a traditional work shift. The title of the program came from the notion that many nurses might enter the workforce in a hospital environment if they could work "mother's hours" that generally occur when children are in school (from 9 am to 2 pm). Table 1 presents Parent Shift program guidelines.

Prior to conducting research on Parent Shift program effectiveness, a review of the literature was conducted. Only one article was found, from a program initiated in 1990. Authors discussed how a flexible mother's shifts program could balance nursing workload in a hospital unit setting. Post-program survey results reflected that the program was helpful to extremely helpful in 98.5% of respondents. Nurses took on a variety of duties that included hanging intravenous solutions and blood, discharge planning, passing medications, answering call lights, drawing blood, admitting new patients to the floor, and covering shift nurses during breaks. Parent Shift nurses do not take a full assignment since they do not work a full shift; however, their assistance can lighten the load for shift nurses and lead to a decrease in overtime, situational stress, and burnout. Since the Parent Shift nurse becomes part of the unit team, nurse collaboration and teamwork might be enhanced.

No literature was found that explains (a) this type of program's appeal to nurses, (b) details of hospital drivers that make a program attractive initially, (c) incentives to continue participation over time, (d) usual RN duties, (e) nurse managers' (NM) perceptions of the primary Parent Shift nurse's role, and (f) satisfaction with orientation (RN and NM).

The purposes of this study were to (a) describe personal motivating factors of RNs who joined the Parent Shift program, (b) describe hospital drivers or incentives that promoted RNs to join and sustain working in the Parent Shift program, (c) describe specific Parent Shift nurse duties, (d) examine the congruence between NM perception of duties and actual duties as perceived by nurses, (e) examine Parent Shift nurse and NM satisfaction with orientation, and (f) characterize NM perception of program advantages to nursing practice.

Methods

This prospective, descriptive, comparative survey research study was conducted in a 1,000+ bed tertiary care, teaching, medical center of excellence in the Midwest. A convenience sample was used...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



More articles from Nursing Economics
Expanded newborn screening for genetic and metabolic disorders: modeli..., November 01, 2007
A cost-benefit analysis of music therapy in a home hospice.($uccess $t..., November 01, 2007
An innovative role for nurse practitioners in managing chronic disease..., November 01, 2007
Identifying patient's medical conditions at hospital admission provide..., November 01, 2007
Workplace abuse: finding solutions.(Human Resource Solutions), November 01, 2007

Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.

Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication name or publication date.

About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company analysis or best practices in managing your organization, Goliath can help you meet your business needs.

Our extensive business information databases empower business professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible, authoritative information they need to support their business goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting, company research or defining management best practices - Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.