1018 - Periop Practice Entry: New Innovations

Overview/Abstract: Recruitment and retention of skilled nurses is one of the most demanding issues in ORs today. Program participants will learn about an innovative approach to create a pathway to meet this demand, shorten the time needed to educate nurses new to periop practice, and satisfy a desire for nurses already engaged in the culture to embrace a new and highly sought after specialty.

The 2010 Institute of Medicine Report; The Future of Nursing Leading Change Advancing Health highlighted the importance of nursing transition programs as a mechanism to support new graduate nurses but also nurses with experience outside of the perioperative setting. Over the last decade an epic shift in perioperative nursing has occurred. The intellectual capital of our senior nurses is declining as retirements increase, and a new generation of nurses has challenged us to think differently about work life balance for nurses and the opportunities for bedside nurses to transition into specialty practice.

We have welcomed new grad nurses in the OR for over 25 years and with this new approach, we gained valuable insight engaging a cohort of experienced nurses in transition to perioperative practice (ENTPP). This panel will share insights and observations on the differences in learning needs and style and the ability to educate nurses to a new environment in an institution they are already intimately familiar with. It is the willingness to try new strategies and embrace new learning that we continue to build a future nursing workforce that will become our preferred future.