Developing a successful 16-week “transition ED nursing” program: One busy community hospital's experience

Abstract

As the educator at the emergency center of Cape Cod Hospital, a small 240-bed community hospital located on a narrow peninsula in Massachusetts, I knew we needed to be creative in recruiting emergency nurses. I had been the educator in another community hospital emergency department and had implemented a successful orientation of new graduates. With the growing nursing shortage, I knew we were going to have to "grow our own" again. I approached the management team with the idea, and we agreed to recruit nurses who had at least 6 months of medical-surgical experience and a telemetry course.