Transitioning into the role of professional nurse is cause for great excitement and apprehension for the student nurse. Nursing school is tough, but the student nurses have their professors to help them during training, and during preceptorhships they have their preceptors always looking over their shoulders. Once they step into the workplace, things get a whole lot more complicated and scary. For that reason, MountainView Hospital has implemented a program to transition nursing graduates into the real world of nursing.
A 2004 article in the Journal of Nursing Administration noted that 35 to 69 percent of new graduate nurses left their jobs within one year. A consistent, structured and standardized graduate nurse program can help prevent new nurses from fleeing their first job and the nursing profession. The need for a standardized transition-to-practice model has arisen because of the changes in health care in the past 20 years. Patients are living longer and have multiple chronic conditions; systems are becoming more complex and technology is growing exponentially. At the same time, the focus is on patient safety, quality improvement, and evidence-based practice, which require high-level thinking and experiential learning.
MountainView Hospital has partnered with Parallon Workforce Solutions on a program that will transition nursing graduates into the workforce. The program, StaRN, is a specialty training initiative that provides intense post-graduate training to newly licensed nurses. The program is designed for med/surg, telemetry, and critical care nurses.
The program is based on the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Essentials of Critical Care Orientation core curriculum. It will also incorporate many of MountainView Hospital’s specific training initiatives such as Core Measures and care of the septic patient. At the end of the program, the graduate nurses will be BLS, ACLS, NIH Stroke Scale and CPI certified. The program also uses the TeamSTEPPS training developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That program along with some cultural lessons around patient safety and communications will help develop a well-rounded professional nurse.
The new nurses will also be trained on Meditech, the Electronic Health Record, and complete a didactic and basic dysrhythmia final exam. The program runs 13 weeks. The first six to seven weeks include a combination of didactic education and simulation. The remaining six to seven weeks are spent at MountainView Hospital working with a carefully selected clinical preceptor.
The program also includes training for the seasoned nurses that will be precepting the graduate nurses. The preceptor will attend a one-day seminary along with completing the online AACN Challenge course so that they have the tools and skills to be a great preceptor.
Through the training and simulation, which include American Association of Critical-Care Nurses curriculum and six to seven weeks of clinical preceptorship, the new nurses are capable of working independently much earlier in their profession than prior to the introduction of this program. The StaRN program provides a consistent, structured and standardized national curriculum for newly licensed registered nurses.
MountainView Hospital will have 15 graduates participating in our first StaRN program. We are so excited to help transition these new nurses into the practice environment and have them become part of the MountainView family. By doing so, we are able to provide our patients excellent care and also support our community.
The universities and colleges in Nevada have produced top-notch nurses who are intelligent, compassionate, and professional. Now that MountainView has partnered with Parallon and their StaRN program, we are able to take these graduate nurses and turn them into “Rock Stars” that deliver safe, quality driven care.