Development of a New Graduate Perioperative Nursing Program at an Urban Pediatric Institution

In 2012, perioperative personnel from Boston Children's Hospital began the process of planning for perioperative staff member attrition and retirement by developing a new graduate perioperative nursing program geared toward our pediatric urban academic institution. We selected two cohorts of new graduate nurses to begin the program in 2013. To date, two cohorts of six graduate nurses have completed the program and have been hired. Our new perioperative nurse retention rate is 100%. All of these nurses are currently practicing in the main OR at our facility. In one year, we recovered the initial program costs, which included the expenses incurred by hiring 12 full-time employees to replace more highly paid tenured RNs lost to attrition or retirement and training costs for new graduates. We believe the program has reduced overall long-term staffing costs and has prevented disruption to services as a result of unexpected vacancies from retirements and resignations.