VERSANT NG vs. just regular NG

I just got hired at a hospital in California which has their new grad RN's go through the Versant program. I'm very excited- heard a lot of positive things about the Versant program.

Here's a web link about the Versant program.

Home Page

Good luck!

I'm currently in my 4th week of a Versant program. So far its been fantastic. The first couple of weeks were mostly educational and now we start working on the floor with our preceptors 2/3 of the time and the other 1/3 is classroom training. Its very intense but supportive. For me, I feel that everyone in the hospital is supportive and wants you to succeed. Versant programs usually run about 18 weeks. Its more of a 'holistic' approach to nursing where you learn a little bit about the hospital and you are gradually eased into your nursing career where you work alone.

I would say it is definitely possible to have a fantastic orientation without it being Versant.

I just started a Critical Care Nurse Internship, it is 17 weeks long and we do 4 weeks each in the ER, ICU, CVICU, and Stepdown. There are 15 of us.

I just finished the first week, and so far we've done an indepth hemodynamics course and a very thorough ECG course. The instructors are fantastic and VERY supportive. We do multidisciplinary rounds in the ICU and CVICU twice a week, in which we go around to each patient's room with the physician, RT, pharmacist, and the patient's nurse and get a taught all about the patient and can ask any questions.

This is, I believe, the 6th program they are doing this way (one every 6 months) and they've had incredible success with training new grads to be ready for the ICU.

Oh, and our weekly schedule is, Monday: do rounds, pick our patient (similar to nursing school), and research our patient. Tues and Wed we do 12 hour shifts in which we take care of the patient we have picked along with their assigned nurse. BUT, we are in no way treated like students - the nurses respect us and are there to teach and guide us. Thursdays our group of 15 gets together, does classroom time, simulations, etc.

Just wanted to put it out there that just because a New Grad program isn't Versant, doesn't mean it isn't absolutely fantastic.

Then again, if I was given a 8 week orientation just working alongside with a preceptor and then turned out on my own, I think there would be a high likelihood of being very overwhelmed (esp in the ICU setting).