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Surgical Smoke Nearly Killed Me - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine - February 2018

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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breakup note at 8:08 p.m. of what turned out to be her last day with us: I apologize for doing this via email. I was offered a position at another company that's more in line with my goals, and I've accepted. Their train- ing class starts tomorrow so today was my last day. Good luck and thank you. Inspired by this incredible experience and concerned over our suddenly sinking retention rate, I wondered which was the most challenging element of staffing: recruiting, training or retaining. Given the game of musical chairs we've been playing in the adjoining cubicles by the printers of late, I'd say retaining was the hardest. But when we polled more than 300 of our readers last month, 40% said recruiting was the toughest, while 13% went with retain- ing and only 9% chose training. Those numbers don't add up to 100 because 38% took the easy way out by selecting "all of the above." Ms. Gilmore's article details her hospital's nursing intern program that takes newly minted RNs who had limited exposure to the OR in nursing school and trains them in the ways of the operating room and of the hospital during a 6- to 7-month long didactic and hands-on competency program. When they complete their internship, the trained nurses are confident and comfortable in scrubs. They're also loyal and committed to the people and the place that trained them. Of the 21 nurses who completed their internships and became staff circula- tors, Ms. Gilmore says 9, including herself, have stayed in the surgical department for at least 12 months. "Many might not have considered OR nursing as a career choice without the specialty training we provided," she writes. Maybe we should start a Medical Trade Publishing Internship for all new editorial hires here at the magazine. At the very least, they might stick around for more than a week. OSM Editor's Page EP 1 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R U Y 2 0 1 8

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