Resource Library

Newly Licensed RNs’ Characteristics, Work Attitudes, and Intentions to Work

In an effort to better understand turnover rates in hospitals and the effect of new nurses on them, this study sought to describe the characteristics and attitudes toward work of newly licensed RNs, a population important to both the nursing profession and the health care system. 2007 Kovner, C. T., Brewer, C. S., Fairchild, S., […]


What Newly Licensed Registered Nurses Have to Say About Their First Experiences

To understand factors that promote retention of Newly Licensed Registered Nurses (NLRNs) and those that contribute to turnover, a survey of a national sample of NLRNs was conducted. This article describes the content analysis of 612 NLRN comments about their work life. Using Krippendorff’s1 technique, 5 themes were discovered. 2009 Pellico, L. H., Brewer, C. […]


Understanding New Registered Nurses’ Intent To Stay at Their Jobs

Nursing turnover is costly for health care organizations. Newly licensed registered nurses work behavior is a complex process, influenced by their attitudes toward their work, personal characteristics, job opportunities, and workplace attributes. Several characteristics are significant in predicting satisfaction (ethnicity, gender) and organizational commitment (patient load, mandatory overtime, shift, and unit type) and intent to […]


A Comparison of Second-degree Baccalaureate and Traditional-baccalaureate New Graduate RNs: Implications for the Workforce

The purpose of this study was to describe the differences between traditional baccalaureate graduates (TBGs) who had a baccalaureate degree in nursing and no other academic degree or diploma and second-degree-baccalaureate graduates (SDGs) who had both a baccalaureate degree in nursing and a baccalaureate or higher degree in a field other than nursing. Using a […]


Summer 2009 RN Work Project Newsletter

In This Issue Communicating Research Fast Facts Forthcoming   Download (47.03 KB)


Moving On, Up, or Out: Changing Work Needs of New RNs at Different Stages of Their Beginning Nursing Practice

This article describes the work experience of a national cohort of 229 RNs who participated in a survey on work environment at two different time periods. Survey results of the RNs’ experience within two and a half years of their initial RN licensure (time period two) are described in detail, and comparisons are made to […]


General Work Life

Date Posted: 2010-10-14

Newly licensed registered nurses (NLRNs) care about: Doing their job well Being fairly rewarded for their work Receiving a good pay Unsafe, poorly managed and poorly equipped work environments hold NLRNs back: 25% reported at least one on-the-job needle-stick 39% reported at least one strain or sprain 21% reported a cut or laceration 46% reported […]


Source: Christine Kovner and Carol Brewer

Education Attainment

Date Posted: 2011-11-11

Within two and a half years of being licensed as a Registered Nurse (RN): 14.5% (n=137) of RNs with Associate degrees were enrolled in an educational program 9.9% (n=64) of RNs with Baccalaureate degrees were enrolled in an educational program Within four and a half years of being licensed as an RN: Of RNs with […]


Source: These questions were answered by the sample of RNs who replied to all three waves of the survey (Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3): (N=1648). Christine Kovner and Carol Brewer

Initial and Progression of Educational Preparation of Early Career Nurses

Date Posted: 2012-03-15

In our national sample:  56.3% of RNs held an Associate degree in nursing (ADN) as their basic nursing degree compared to 39.5% with Bachelor’s degree in Nursing (BSN). Within three years of initial licensure, 6.7% of BSN nurses earned a Masters or Doctoral degree. Within three years of initial licensure, 12.9% RNs with an ADN […]


New Nurses Views of Quality Improvement Education

Quality improvement (QI) is a focus of hospital managers and policymakers. The role of registered nurses (RNs) in QI in hospitals is vital because most hospital-based RNs provide direct care to patients. QI skills are necessary to identify gaps between current care and best practice and to design, implement, test, and evaluate changes and are […]