That's why we fill our ORs with nurses whom we hope will stay with
us for years, not weeks. We did so by working with a local hospital to
create a "Periop 101" training and clinical orientation program for
aspiring OR nurses who have a strong desire to work in surgery. I
oversee the training program, which pulls candidates in 2 ways:
• In-house. Through our internal transition program, our HR depart-
ment reaches out to and interviews nurses who have an interest in
working in the OR. With this group, our hospital will pay for them to
take the coursework and the 5-day rotation through the OR. When
nurses complete their clinical training, they simply transfer to surgery
and begin their formal orientation in the OR.
• Remotely. Non-employee nurse interns from our partner college
go through a similar program, but instead of 5 days in the OR, this
group spends 24 days in the OR (2 days per week over 12 weeks) at
different local hospitals within our region. While our interns don't
orient as quickly as the internal RNs, they might be more motivated
because, unlike folks in the internal transition program, these nurses
pay $3,995 out of pocket for the 12-week program, which is essen-
tially equivalent to a college semester.
Since we launched the program in the Fall of 2016, we've added 13
new OR nurses to our team, created an invaluable pipeline of poten-
tial candidates and, most importantly, cut our travel RNs from 17 to 8.
Here are 3 keys to our success.
Pick the right leader. For a recruiting-training program like this
to work, you need to appoint the right leader. She must be a pas-
sionate, hands-on instructor and an uber-organized administrator.
What's more, you must give her the time she'll need to do the job. It's a
lot of work, especially while you're trying to figure out the clinical
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