Paced by Duchscher's stages and priced at $38,345 a year, the NU514 Unit 9 plan's redesigned ICU first year repays itself by preventing one departure every two years. Searches like "nu 514 unit 9 assignment example", "nu514 unit 9 sample" and "nu514 unit 9 example" land here.
No Nights Before Month Six: A New Graduate Transition Plan for a Surgical ICU Built on Duchscher's Stages
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU514: Human Resources Management
Unit 9 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The unit's retention figures, costs and placement data are composite and bracketed; the transition research and residency literature cited are published.
The Problem, From the Unit's Own Evidence
First-year retention of new graduates on the unit is [57] percent: eight of the last fourteen stayed a year. Of the six who left, five had moved to nights before their fifth month, and most had worked only a handful of shifts beside a night preceptor first. The retention study found that new graduates on nights described feeling underprepared, with few experienced colleagues and no educator on the shift. The workforce analysis found nights staffed by the least experienced nurses, and the performance case showed what happens when a few experienced night nurses precept almost everyone.
The Model: Duchscher's Stages
Duchscher (2008) described new graduates' first year as a process of becoming in three stages. In the first, doing, roughly the first three to four months, new nurses focus on tasks, routines and not making mistakes, and they experience the shock of transition most intensely. In the second, being, through about the ninth month, they gain competence and begin to question and understand the system around them. In the third, knowing, toward the end of the first year, they separate from the role of new graduate and settle into a professional identity. Duchscher (2009) located transition shock in the first months, when the gap between expectation and reality is widest.
The plan puts its heaviest support where Duchscher places the heaviest strain.
Phase Table
1. Weeks 1 to 4, doing. Classroom, simulation and skills validation for the unit's core technologies, three days a week, and two shifts a week alongside a preceptor. Support: educator, simulation staff. Signal of readiness: core competencies validated.
2. Weeks 5 to 16, doing. Twelve weeks with one primary preceptor on a matched schedule of days, patient load rising from one to two patients. Support: primary preceptor, weekly check-in with the educator. Signal: independent management of two patients of moderate acuity, confirmed by preceptor and educator.
3. Months 5 and 6, being. Independent practice on days, with a named resource nurse each shift and a monthly seminar with other fellows. Signal: stable assignments, no unresolved concerns from charge nurses.
4. Months 7 to 12, being to knowing. Night transition after six shifts with a named night preceptor; monthly seminars continue; first certification preparation offered. Signal: completion of the twelve-month program.
Placement Rules
Fellows remain on days until month six, and no fellow works an independent night until she has completed six shifts with a named night preceptor. Night placement is scheduled, not assigned when a night vacancy opens. Fellows hired into night positions are told at hire that their first six months will be on days, and the unit budgets their night positions to be covered through that period.
Preceptors
Selection: preceptors must have at least two years in the unit, current critical care competencies and a charge nurse or educator recommendation. Preparation: an eight-hour preceptor workshop covering adult learning, giving feedback, and recognizing transition shock, with a refresher annually. Protection: no preceptor is assigned an orientee on more than half of her shifts, and each preceptor has at least one shift without an orientee between successive orientees. Preceptors receive [recognition and a shift differential] while precepting.
Borrowing From National Models
The plan borrows structure from national nurse residency models, including a twelve-month duration, regular cohort seminars and attention to professional development, and acknowledges that source (Goode et al., 2018). A multistate study of transition-to-practice programs found lower turnover and fewer reported errors among new nurses in hospitals with well-structured programs (Spector et al., 2015). The unit-specific parts, delayed night placement and night preceptors, come from the unit's own evidence.
Measurement
Primary: twelve-month retention of each cohort, with a target of [80] percent within two years. Secondary: fellows' scores on a transition experience survey at months three, six and twelve; number of shifts with a night preceptor before the first independent night; preceptor load compliance; and fellows' self-reported readiness for nights at month six.
Cost
Keeping fellows on days for six months requires covering their budgeted night positions. For [six] fellows a year, covering night positions for about 26 weeks each adds roughly [$28,000] per fellow in premium labor above budget, about [$168,000] a year. The preceptor workshop and differential add about [$24,000]. Against that, each first-year loss costs the unit about $99,000 by the unit's turnover estimate, mostly spent on a fellowship that produced no lasting nurse. Raising first-year retention from 57 to 80 percent would prevent about [1.4] losses a year for every six fellows hired, about [$137,000] a year. On that alone, the plan recovers about three-quarters of its [$192,000] cost. It pays for itself if it also prevents one departure a year among the experienced night nurses who now carry most of the precepting, since replacing one of them costs about $68,700 by the same estimate.
References
Duchscher, J. B. (2008). A process of becoming: The stages of new nursing graduate professional role transition. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 39(10), 441-450. https://doi.org/10.3928/00220124-20081001-03
Duchscher, J. E. B. (2009). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated registered nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(5), 1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04898.x
Goode, C. J., Glassman, K. S., Ponte, P. R., Krugman, M., & Peterman, T. (2018). Requiring a nurse residency for newly licensed registered nurses. Nursing Outlook, 66(3), 329-332. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2018.04.004
Spector, N., Blegen, M. A., Silvestre, J., Barnsteiner, J., Lynn, M. R., Ulrich, B., Fogg, L., & Alexander, M. (2015). Transition to practice study in hospital settings. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 5(4), 24-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(15)30031-4
How this NU514 Unit 9 example is structured
The plan begins from its own unit's evidence rather than national statistics, because the problem it solves was found locally: nights entered too early, with too little night precepting. Phases follow Duchscher's account of transition, so the heaviest support falls in the first four months, where her work locates transition shock. Each phase lists what fellows do, who supports them and what signals readiness to move on. Preceptor selection and preparation get a section of their own. Structure borrowed from national residency models, such as the Vizient and AACN Nurse Residency Program, is acknowledged without any claim to license one, and the plan notes that accreditation through ANCC's Practice Transition Accreditation Program or CCNE would be a separate, later decision. Costs come last, set against the Unit 3 estimate of a new graduate departure, $94,526, so the break-even is visible.
Get an NU514 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Orientation length, the first shift alone, the week nights begin: how new graduates enter your unit now is where a transition plan starts. Send those details and the Unit 9 prompt and rubric. A phased, costed model plan follows within 24-48h at no charge for a first request, and how your unit welcomes new nurses is yours to decide. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
NU514 Unit 9 questions, answered
What are Duchscher's stages of transition?
Judy Boychuk Duchscher described new graduates moving through doing, being and knowing over roughly the first year, with an early period of transition shock marked by stress, self-doubt and exhaustion. The sample uses the stages to pace support, concentrating preceptor time and check-ins in the first four months and shifting to seminars and peer support once fellows begin working independently.
Can the plan call itself an accredited residency?
Only if it holds accreditation, and the composite program does not. ANCC's Practice Transition Accreditation Program and CCNE both accredit transition programs through formal review. The sample says it borrows structure from national models such as the Vizient and AACN Nurse Residency Program without licensing one, and treats accreditation as a possible later step rather than a claim.
Why keep new graduates off nights until month six?
Because the unit's own evidence tied first-year departures to early night placement with little night precepting. Nights offer fewer resources and less senior support, so the sample delays them and requires six shifts with a named night preceptor first. Other units may place new graduates differently; what matters is that the rule answers the unit's data.