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New Munroe, FL Nurses Learn on the Job
Ocala Star-Banner
June 30, 2009
Munroe Regional Medical Center has started a new nurse residency program to train new nursing-school graduates it recently hired from here and nearby counties.
The 16-week program, which began on June 1, is designed to familiarize the students with the hospital and its units. In addition, it aims to create a strong support network for the new nurses.
“Hiring new [graduate nurses] is expensive. But we view it as a great opportunity for us, the nurses, the community, and the local economy,” said Dan O’Connor, vice president of human resource at Munroe.
The transition from being a nursing student to a practicing nurse can be daunting for new graduates. For that reason, most hospitals have residency or orientation programs, which familiarize the students with particular units and the hospital.
Ocala Regional Medical Center, for instance, has a 12-week graduate nurse orientation program in various units.
Munroe also has a 8 to 12-week unit-specific program for new graduate nurses that are hired.
“But that’s more like learning on the job,” said Heather Gifford, the workforce development and retention coordinator at Munroe.
She explained that what’s different about the hospital’s new residency program is the fact that it’s longer and it allows the new nurses to get to know all units of the hospital before being matched with a particular unit. After matching, the nurses are further trained in their assigned unit before taking on patient care.
Most of the 17 nurses who have been hired into the program said that they chose the program because of additional time and training.
“It allows me to see the different areas of the hospital that I didn’t see during school,” said Brian Poloniecki, a Lake-Sumter Community College graduate, who left a career in aviation for nursing.
Shanan Esposito, who also graduated from Lake-Sumter Community College, said the program allows her to obtain various certifications before starting patient care.
