OLEAN — Olean General Hospital celebrated its first cohort of nurses to graduate from the hospital’s nurse residency program.
The year-long program celebrated the graduation of 18 nurses at a pinning ceremony on Wednesday.
The nurses who graduated from the program included Ashley Ameis, RN; Mackenzie Crowe, RN; Kaleigh Donavon, BS, RN; Jacqueline Farrell, RN; Jamie Higley, RN; Jocelyn Huselstein, RN; Morgan Kasprzyk, RN; Alyssah Lanworthy, RN; Ryan Malanowski, RN; Jennifer Minard, RN; Alicea Nickerson, RN; Logan Nolder, RN; Grace Norton, RN; Taneasha Schaeper, BS, RN; Rosey Thomas, BSN, RN; Mark Thornton, BSN, RN; Devin Washington, RN; and Lindsey Wind, RN.
The program got underway at OGH with this group, with the members being graduate nurses in 2023, Joseph Fuglewicz, marketing director of OGH and Bradford (Pa.) Regional Medical Center, said.The one-year program was created to improve retention of nurses, create a sense of community through mentorship and develop a connection to resources throughout the organization, as well as support the new nurses to continue to be life-long learners as they prepare to earn their bachelor’s degrees.
The program provides the graduate nurses with monthly hands-on training in addition to each participant having to develop an evidence-based research project specific to a unit or department, or hospital-wide, at OGH.
Prior to the pinning ceremony the nurses presented their projects, with one such project focusing on how improving knowledge of the emergency department triage process improves patient satisfaction with emergency department visits.
Highlighted in the research was how information provided to patients in the emergency room in a simplified way, including how patients are evaluated and the order of treatment, could improve overall experience.
“I’m so proud of this group of nurses and the work they’ve accomplished in the year since joining us,” said Jennifer Ruggles, chief nursing officer of Olean General and BRMC. “There has been a lot of work into this program by the clinical education department and nursing leaders to help improvement nurse satisfaction and retention.”
Ruggles noted the 2023 graduate nurse retention rate of 92% “demonstrates the purpose of the nurse residency program and improvement of job satisfaction here at OGH.”
In 2024, OGH and BRMC have hired 19 graduate nurses who will start the nurse residency program in July. The goal of the organization is to continue to hire local, community-oriented nurses to displace high-cost agency staff throughout both medical campuses.
Over the past two years, agency costs have been reduced to one-fifth of previous costs and reduced to more than half of what it was in 2022.