| Sumario: | Traditionally, all new graduate nurses are encouraged to take inpatient jobs on medical/surgical units and ambulatory clinics and infusion centers hired experienced nurses. With an ongoing national nursing shortage, traditional thinking needed to be replaced with thinking outside the box. The purpose of this project was to lead change in hiring practices for ambulatory oncology clinics by fostering a new graduate nurse positions and onboarding practices. First, we sought to identify how many new graduate nurses we could support within our clinics and what areas could provide this opportunity. This required examining the total number of open positions, preceptors with bandwidth, and whether the program could be supported across the health system. Once we landed on the number of hires, we partnered with DUHS Nursing Support & Retention to procure the positions. This allowed the new graduate nurses to rotate to the various clinic without impacting clinic productivity. Second, we had to socialize the idea with oncology leadership, providers, and clinic staff. This included sending emails, speaking at staff and disease group meetings, and other group forums. Our clinical educator partnered with our hospital oncology educator and Clinical Nurse Specialists to create the onboarding process, micro- learnings, and clinical milestones for each area. A schedule was created so that each new hire would rotate to various medical/surgical clinics, radiation oncology, and infusion units across the health system over 12 weeks. At the end of the rotation, the new nurse would be hired into an open clinical position. This program resulted in onboarding 10 new nurses. All being placed in their first choice position. While this program received excellent feedback from participants and leadership, all have agreed that smaller hiring cohorts will improve the experience for all involved. The program exceeded expectations and can be easily replicated in other facilities and departments. Success was due, in large part, to the work of our cancer center clinical educator did with each nurse manager and preceptor to ensure they were prepared for supporting the new nurse experience. Hiring new graduate nurses directly into the outpatient setting infused the clinics with new energy, hope and enthusiasm. The program success relies on many collaborations, including recruitment, hospital education, and all clinic staff.
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