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Description
Practice Problem: Currently 67% of internal applicants are hired into our nurse residency program. Feedback from nursing leadership suggests internal candidates often fall short in areas like interviewing skills and professionalism, making external candidates stronger. Given the higher education resources provided to team members and our organization’s commitment to internal mobility, identifying ways to support employees and retaining top nursing talent is a priority. Our EBP question is: Will participation in a Student Nurse Technician (SNT) program increase the percentage of Patient Care Technicians (PCTs) in good standing that are accepted into the nurse residency compared to the current process.
Literature/Evidence: Using CINAHL Ultimate, search criteria included key word search terms: nurse apprenticeships, nurse assistant roles, recruitment and retention of Unlicensed Assistive Personnel. A review of the literature, focusing on pre-pandemic studies to eliminate COVID-related compounding variables, shows that structured support programs can improve outcomes. Studies confirm that participation in SNT programs builds loyalty and fosters recruitment success. According to Haqq-Stevens et al. (2017), academic resources were considered more valuable compared to increased skill opportunities. While Lokmic-Tomkins et al. (2021) found that institutional support leads to stronger organizational commitment and readiness to practice.
Practice Changes: To address these challenges, a Student Nurse Technician program was developed to better support nursing students working as PCTs in our Clinical Resource Team (CRT) (float pool). Participants meet monthly to discuss progress and participate in professional growth activities. The program includes three targeted components:
Academic Support: Offers NCLEX practice tests, individualized coaching, and test-taking strategy sessions, culminating in an NCLEX review course during their final semester.
Clinical Support: Provides exposure to various hospital units through shadowing, followed by debriefing conversations to help participants assess their preferences for nurse residency placement.
Professional Support: Provides feedback with resume development, mock interviews, and one-on-one interview debriefs to enhance their interview skills.
Implementation/Pilot Testing: The pilot cohort includes eight PCTs from the CRT, each having completed at least one semester of nursing school. Participants were identified via an intake form and voluntarily opted into the program. Leaders were provided with a schedule to ensure appropriate staffing and enhance flexibility.
Outcomes/Results: Outcome data will be available in December 2025. Evaluation metrics include the percentage of participants hired into the nurse residency program compared to non-participants, Casey-Fink Readiness to Practice Survey results (pre-program, in the program, and program end), and orientation duration. Literature indicates that participants in support programs typically experience shorter onboarding periods (Flint, 2023), which will be another indicator of program success.
Recommendations/Conclusions: Based on the results, the program may expand to include additional departments and campuses. There is growing interest in supporting nursing students who work in healthcare but not as PCTs, though literature suggests that best practice for SNT programming is those already in a PCT role. Barriers to scaling include inconsistent academic calendars and differing levels of participant motivation. Still, this initiative supports the broader goal of transforming internal candidates into confident, competent nursing professionals prepared for residency success.
Publication Date
10-2025
Disciplines
Pediatric Nursing
Recommended Citation
Bean, Radiance G., "Increasing Clinical Internal Mobility Through a Student Nurse Technician Program" (2025). TCU EBP Fellowship. 19.
https://scholarlycollection.childrens.com/nursing-posters-tcuebp/19
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
