[Stress among newly hired nursing professionals]

A management project was carried out to reduce the stress among newly hired nursing professionals in our hospital. A work group was set up which, utilizing interviews and consensus seeking techniques, identified the main stress causing factors from which a Welcoming Program was designed having two fundamental aspects: on the one hand, a welcoming program which serves to create an atmosphere of trust in order to aid a new professional's integration; while on the other hand, providing the newcomer with a welcoming guide which includes the most pertinent information regarding the Nursing Department, the Health Center and the Health District. This program was applied to 431 newly hired professionals between the years 1996 and 1999. In order to evaluate the results, a questionnaire sent to those newcomers hired over the past year, obtaining 91 sample cases. 96.7% considered the information regarding the Center's norms to be "very useful"; 94.5% considered the information regarding Center's structure to be "very useful"; and 57.1% considered the information regarding the Health District to be "very useful". 96.7% considered it "very favorable" to know the Nursing management team and the entire group found this Program very satisfactory and feel integrated in this Hospital. Compared to the four previous years before the implementation of this program, labor absences inferior to 48 hours were reduced by 28% and global absenteeism declined 8%.