With the healthcare system revolution in Saudi Arabia and the high turnover rate among nursing staff, new grad Saudi Nurses are considered one of the most important resources to achieve the targeted staffing plan. Putting in the mind the key role new nursing graduates play in maintaining the future nursing workforce, developing a healthy environment that may protect new graduate nurses from burnout is important. The novice newly hired nurses are considered one of the challenges to their employers. These include being unready to perform core generic nursing skills and having a difficulty to bridge the gap between their classroom experiences to real-life clinical practice. In relation to that, studies showed that burnout among new graduate nurses is troubling. 66% of new graduates experienced severe burnout, primarily related to negative workplace conditions.

Facilitating the role transition for newly hired novice nurses from student’s role to a professional nurse role in a healthy learning environment is a big challenge for nursing leaders in Saudi Arabia to prevent their burnout, retain them, and maintain patient safety.  Through this study we will explore the effect of RN Residency program on the smooth transition for the newly hired novice nurses, retaining them, and improving their confidence and competence level.Quasi experimental study design was used to the selected consecutive sample from the RN residents from batch 1 and 2 at King Saud Medical City, Saudi Arabia.Data will be collected by using the turnover rate key performance indicator and the Casey-Fink Graduate Nurse Experience Survey (revised). This study will be guided by the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Framework (figure 1). This framework shows Kirkpatrick’s model is based on four levels of evaluation, where each level builds on the previous level.