Sink or Swim Is Not a Retention Strategy: Helping New Nurses Thrive...and Stay

Send us Fan Mail We spend years preparing nurses to enter the profession. Then they graduate, walk onto a unit, and suddenly realize nursing school and actually being a nurse are two very different things. For nurse leaders, that transition matters because how a new nurse experiences those first months can shape not only their confidence and competence, but whether they want to stay on your unit, in your organization, or even in nursing. In this episode of the Nurse Leader Network Podcast, Dr. Chris Coyle sits down with registered nurse, nursing educator, and Amazon bestselling author Matt McIlmoyle, author of Becoming the Nurse You Needed. Matt brings more than 20 years of nursing experience and more than a decade of experience educating future nurses. Together, Chris and Matt explore what it actually feels like to move from nursing student to practicing nurse, and what nurse leaders can do to make that transition safer, healthier, and more sustainable. Because new nurses don't need leaders who expect them to simply “tough it out.” They need environments where they can learn. In this episode, we talk about: Why the transition from nursing student to practicing nurse can be so jarring Why nursing school prepares nurses with knowledge, but practice requires an entirely different set of skills The role psychological safety plays in new nurse development Why new nurses need to feel safe saying, “I don't know,” “I need help,” or “Can you show me again?” What nurse leaders can do to create psychologically safe units Why the traditional nursing “culture of endurance” may actually contribute to burnout and turnover How preceptors can unintentionally create a sink-or-swim environment Why consistency, repetition, support, and relationship-building matter during onboarding How leaders can recognize when a nurse is struggling before that nurse completely disengages Why boundaries and psychological self-protection matter for long-term retention The connection between people-pleasing, over-functioning, burnout, and resentment How helping nurses understand their values can influence career satisfaction Matt's four workplace archetypes: the Over-Functioner, the Controller, the Cynic, and the Withdrawer What those behaviors may actually tell leaders about the culture of their team A Question for Nurse Leaders Think back to your first weeks as a nurse. What did you need from your leader? More importantly: Would a brand-new nurse walking onto your unit today receive it? New nurses aren't supposed to walk out of nursing school knowing everything. They're learning how to live nursing. How to prioritize, communicate, manage emotions, navigate relationships, ask for help, make decisions under pressure, and function inside an incredibly complex healthcare environment. Our job as leaders isn't to remove every challenge. It's to create an environment where nurses can safely grow through those challenges. Because sink or swim might produce a few strong swimmers, but it is not a retention strategy. About Matt McIlmoyle Matt McIlmoyle is a registered nurse with more than 20 years of nursing experience, including acute mental health care, and more than a decade of experience educating nursing students. He is the author of the Amazon bestselling book Becoming the Nurse You Needed, which reached #1 in multiple nursing categories on Amazon. Find Matt & His Book 📘 Becoming the Nurse You Needed: Here 📱 Connect with Matt: [email protected] Website Connect With Nurse Leader Network & Tikidas: Click Here If you're a nurse leader, educator, preceptor, or anyone responsible for onboarding and developing nurses, share this episode with your team and ask yourselves one question: Are we creating nurses who know how to endure our workplace, or are we creating a workplace where nurses can thrive?