By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
Aiming to bring more experienced nurses on board to care for patients, Blake Medical Center in Bradenton, Florida, began a “Back to Nursing” program that offers nurses who have left the bedside an opportunity to return.
“We have a pretty significant nursing shortage, so we were looking for a market to tap into,” said Donna Disbro, RN, BS, vice president of cardiovascular services at Blake Medical Center, which is part of the HCA West Florida hospital system.
Licensed nurses who had left their hospital careers to raise children, care for an older adult or pursue a different career option, sometimes want to return to hospital nursing but lack the confidence, explained staffing experts. Still their clinical judgment is typically good and they know what the job entails.
“The advantage is maturity and experience,” said Kate Garber, RN, MBA, CNEA, assistant vice president of staff development at Blake. “If they have the motivation and we provide the proper environment for growth, we are able to come together and produce a highly functioning registered nurse, which is not what you get with a new graduate.”
Dawn Pomerleau, RN, BSN, was the first nurse to join the program last year. After taking a four-year leave from critical-care nursing to raise her young family, she was ready to return and put her professional skills to work. She now works on a surgical step-down unit.
“It feels good,” Pomerleau said. “I enjoy going to work. I go to work and have adult conversations and intellectual stimulation and critical thinking that you don’t get with a 2 year old, a 3 year old and a newborn.”
“Back to Nursing” provides the returning nurse with 120 hours of online course material from St. Petersburg College, which can begin at any time and be completed over a period of six or eight weeks, and a paid 96-hour clinical orientation, with a preceptor on the unit on which the nurse has been hired to work.
“That clinical time is the first real reintroduction to clinical nursing that they have had,” Garber said. “And it’s a chance for us to evaluate them as well.”
The technology—an electronic record system, pumps and other computerized equipment—presents the greatest challenge. Pomerleau was already tech savvy and undaunted by the equipment.
Upon completion of the orientation, Blake Medical Center offers a full-time position and the nurse receives a check for $2,000 to cover the cost of the college course, books and other expenses.
“We’ve taken all of the hurdles out of their way,” said Blake nurse recruiter Patty Ehrenfeld, explaining that nurses often don’t have the money to take a refresher course on their own, especially with no guarantee that a hospital will hire them.
“It’s good to form a partnership with a hospital,” Pomerleau said. “It may not work for everybody, but it works for me.”
Returning nurses must agree to work at the hospital full time for a year or part time for two years. The preceptor continues to assist the returning nurse for a minimum of 90 days.
Blake Medical Center began the program in May 2008 and, to date, has hired seven nurses, who had been out of nursing between four and 20 years. Prior to launching this program, the hospital was very cautious about hiring any nurse who had been out of the field for three years or more, explained Rose May, RN, MSN, assistant chief nursing officer at Blake.
The hospital no longer has vacancies. Ehrenfeld said she continues to receive inquiries about the “Back to Nursing” program and the hospital plans to hire more retired nurses as vacancies open up.
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