Nursing

New training program helps Illinois hospital retain nurses

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, September 8, 2006

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The 50% turnover rate for first-year nurses was alarming. The cost to train a new graduate-about $50,000-raised a red flag. At St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Belleville, Ill, it was time for a change.

A new training program, set up by Versant, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles, has lowered the turnover rate to about 8% at the hospital. The 18-week course, which will run twice a year at the hospital (around college graduations), strives to ease nurses into the system, rather than giving them too much, too fast. The Versant program gives new graduates more time to learn and allows them a chance to ask more questions.

The program calls for nurses to spend about a quarter of their time in the classroom, where they are paired up with a partner who helps them along the way.

Sources: Belleville News Democrat and www.versant.com



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