IOWA HEALTH: TRANSITION INTO NURSING
By Kara Olsen, for HealthLeaders News
Faced with an RN vacancy rate of 11 percent and a turnover rate of 13 percent in 2001, Iowa Health Des Moines was looking for new ways to ease its nursing shortage by improving the workplace for staff nurses. In June, the hospital system, which consists of 578-bed Iowa Methodist Medical Center, 465-bed Iowa Lutheran Hospital, and 96-bed Blank Children's Hospital, initiated a "transition program" aimed at easing the transition of new nurses into the acute care setting. Arlene Edmondson, RN, MSN, director of education development, says the program--in combination with other changes such as recognizing seniority in scheduling--has helped in reducing turnover by giving nurses a chance to experience the pressures of the workplace before being thrust out on the floor. Since its inception in June 2001, Iowa Health has seen 287 new nurses go through the "transition program," and the results have been noteworthy. In April 2004, the RN turnover rate had dropped to about 8.5 percent and the vacancy rate to just under 2 percent.
http://www.healthleaders.com/news/feature1.php?contentid=56367
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