The purpose of this poster is to present an ongoing community engaged research (CER) initiative at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth College of Nursing (CON) examining in what ways a mentorship to hire (MTH) program with community partners may facilitate role development and transition to practice for senior nursing students and retention in health care organizations upon graduation.

New nursing graduates have a difficult time transitioning to practice in part because of unrealistic perceptions about the nursing role. Difficult transitions can be costly to health care organizations (HCO) who often invest time and money in new graduate hires only for them to leave the practice setting after a short period of time. An additional concern is a current and anticipated shortage of nurses in specialty areas such as post-operative, emergency, and psychiatric nursing. As part of the CON curriculum, senior nursing students must complete 120 hours of mentorship in a health care organization during the last semester of their program where students are paired with a professional registered nurse in a one-on-one concentrated practicum. This practicum provides students with clinical experiences and facilitates transitions to practice, however, HCOs often have a limited number of nurses available for precepting our students in part because of an increased demand and competition between nursing schools for clinical placements.

In an effort to find a mutually beneficial solution, a mentorship to hire program was proposed and developed between two health care organizations and the CON. This poster will discuss the development of the CER program and plans for assessing transition to practice, perceptions of readiness for practice, role development, and retention of the new graduates upon completion of the program. Furthermore plans for evaluating health care organization perceptions including evaluation of fit for organizations, costs associated with training, and retention will also be presented.