Imagine you are a new graduate RN contemplating that first step in your patient career. Like swimming, should you dive into the deep end of the pool now with all the fear and anxiety associated with it? Or should you try shallow water, continuing your learning process through program classes tailored to your needs and interests, ensuring your development and growth in a specialty you will love?
Welcome to the highly successful StaRN program at Sunrise Hospital. New graduate RNs are recruited to help Sunrise Hospital meet the growing demand for nurses today and tomorrow, while helping them gain training and experience in a structured environment and pace.
(Noelle Norris, RN)
"When I graduated nursing school and I applied for the StaRN program, I was over the top with excitement when I got picked to be a part of Sunrise Hospital's program," exclaimed Noelle Norris, RN. "The program really taught me to learn to trust my own nursing skills but also develop new nursing skills in the process."
Interest in the StaRN program among new RN grads is at an all-time high. "Our StaRNs continue to increase every year," said Cyndi Johnson, Chief Nursing Officer at Sunrise Hospital. "We started as low as 48 in 2015. As of 2019 we're up to 164 and 2020, thus far we're at 98. And we'll be hiring another 55 in September and October from Critical Care to Med Surg and Emergency Room."
First steps for our StaRNs? Six weeks of classroom instruction, followed by going to the floors for a six to 10-week orientation depending on the floor and specialty.
(Aly Andres, RN)
"You learn everything hands on and even stuff that you didn't learn in school," explained Aly Andres, RN. "You get a feel of what your unit family is going to be like. I got to meet a lot of friends in here too. I got to work alongside patients and their families. To see someone who's been here for a long time and wasn't ambulatory and eventually gets stronger then gets discharged, it's like, 'wow I watched you get better!' And their families also coming to thank you and all, that's very rewarding."
StaRN's success will continue setting the curve for high retention rates. "When we started the program in 2015, retention was about 50 percent. Since that time we gained every single year. I'm very pleased we're at 93 percent this year," Johnson said.
"Honestly, I don't know what kind of nurse I would be if I hadn't been a part of the StaRN program," added Norris. "I really feel like this program is how you become a better nurse."
