Prepare and Retain (PAR)

The John T Vucurevich Foundation

University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, Rapid City Regional Hospital

Dr. Ellie Brooks, University of South Dakota, Ellie.Brooks@usd.edu,

605-394-5396 

Dr. Barbara Hobbs, South Dakota State University, Barbara.Hobbs@sdstate.edu, 605-394-5390 

Dr. Jo Voss, South Dakota State University, jo.voss@sdstate.edu,

605-394-5390

Rita Haxton, Rapid City Regional Hospital, rhaxton@rcrh.org,

605-719-8111

Nancy Nelson, Rapid City Regional Hospital, nnelson@rcrh.org,

605-719-8258

Brief Project Synopsis: 

The John T Vucurevich Foundation (JTVF) has taken a leadership role in identifying needs and finding solutions to retain the state’s best students to fill critical shortage professions with nursing being one of those professions. Nursing shortages and education were a high priority for the Mr. Vucurevich, the founder of the JTVF, with nursing scholarships and school endowments being provided since 1990.  For example, this year $50,000 was given to the four local universities so each could provide scholarships to outstanding junior students.  In addition the foundation gave $40,000 to South Dakota State University in Rapid City for nursing student scholarships, $50,000 to the University of South Dakota in Rapid City for nursing student scholarships, and $40,000 to Western Dakota Technical Institute for scholarships for twenty (20) South Dakota students in critical workforce shortage areas.  Additional scholarships of approximately $100,000 in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math were awarded to two other area universities.

The JTVF staff initiated a meeting with the nursing directors of the two schools of nursing and the local hospital to form a collaborative partnership approach in submitting for this PIN grant.  The goal was to seek funding to help support solutions to the nursing shortage in our rural area.  The partners identified several initiatives to better prepare and retain nurses. The members of the new partnership met regularly to identify the specific needs and ultimately proposed two solutions to help resolve the shortage.  

The JTVF and three new partners identified the need to prepare and retain nurses, including student nurses, newly licensed Registered Nurses (RNs), experienced RNs and nursing faculty.  They created the Prepare and Retain (PAR) project and subdivided it into two separate programs, an Education Service Partnership and a Registered Nurses Residency program.  These two distinct programs will enhance the preparation of nursing students, kindle an interest in the faculty/educator role and retain nurses past their first few months of licensure. The long, broad goal of this partnership is to retain nurses in the profession.

Project Goals and Objectives:

Our primary purpose is to prepare and retain new RNs for the workforce in Western South Dakota.  The goals for the Educational Service Partnership include: 1) Nursing students will be able to demonstrate higher levels of safe quality patient care; 2) nursing faculty will demonstrate an increased job satisfaction and; 3) more hospital nurses will pursue an interest in serving in the role of nursing faculty after participating in the Education Service Partnership project.  The primary goal of the Registered Nurse Residency project is to support the newly graduated registered nurse for the first year of employment through educational development and mentorship. Our expected results will be a reduction in the turnover of new nurses during their first year of employment at the hospital.  The retention of RNs is also expected to reduce health care costs, improve outcomes and overall morale of existing staff as turnover is reduced.