Cost of training new nurses

Durring my orientation with the company that I work for I had orientation for approx. 60 hours. I think this about average. I had orientation with the big dogs....that consisted of telling you your benifits and then nursing skills orientation and then I had on the floor orientation all totaling 60 hours. So if you figure 60 hours at a min of $10 per hours you total $600. That's quite a bit when you consider the fact there is generally more than one person hired and most nurses make more than $10 per hour.

First off I would like to say WOW! You have only lost 15 nurses in 4 years, we have lost 10 in the last 6 months.

Im not totally convinced that it is cheaper to retain staff who are probably

A)close to the top or at the top of the pay scale and B) who have retirement plans that they are vested in and hence the company needs to pay on.

New staff will start out at a cheaper rate than the ones topped out on the salary scale and they wont be vested for 5 years (most plans), so the hospital saves that money too.

I also read somewhere recently that the average length of time a nurses spends at one facility is 3 years. This is part of the reason why rns work for years and retire with nothing.

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10% of life is the action, and 90% is my reaction. Hence all things are relative to my mood at the moment of impact.

I am not sure where I got this figure from, but at one of my many association meetings the figure $6000 per employee came up for the cost of hiring and orienting a new employee.

I did not see listed in the other postings considerations like, cost of the ad, time of staff to interview (we actually have 2 people to interview a prospective employee.), the time that it takes to do all the background checks, and re-calling because no one returned your call, the TB skin test and the time of the person to read it and record it, I know these probablt seem petty to some, but it all factors into the cost.

It is sad that your upper management does not spend the time and $$$ to research what other facilities are paying in order to keep your staff at a competitive wage. Our CEO has this done every year. Then he looks at the budget and keeps us in the upper third of our local industry. I think this really helps us out.

Good Luck,

NA

Thank you for your responses. We go to negotiations tomorrow with mediation...probably arbitration before we're through. If any one can reference articles that support the cost of training nurses it would be appreciated. We are rural and are trained in ER, OB, RT, Med/Surg, CCU etc. etc. We are social services, pastoral services as well as nurses. We love Rural nursing and what we can give back to the community. While emotionally draining at times (as all nursing can be) we take care of friends neighbors and families and don't want to be part of the exodus of nurses out of economic need. Thanks again for your support!!

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