Future of Nursing Graduates WPH Summer Apprenticeship
In 2006, faced with a prospective national nursing shortage, White Plains Hospital designed a unique apprentice program that would give those interested in a career in nursing – mostly high school and college students – a seven-week crash course working at the hospital. These seven weeks would provide prospective nurses with a better feel for what a career in nursing would be like than any amount of time in a classroom ever would, the theory went, and hopefully a few of them would enjoy their experience enough to stick with the profession.
Nearly half of the students who have graduated in the five years since can be found walking the halls of the hospital today. Sixty-nine students have gone through the Richard P. Biondi Nurse Apprentice Program and by the end of the year 32 will be full-time nurses at the hospital. On Aug. 12, the latest class of apprentices received their certificates and one can only expect that a good number of them will someday begin their nursing careers at the hospital.
“Whatever I encountered during this program reassured me that nursing was a career field I would continue to pursue,” said Camille Bailey, entering her sophomore year at Pace University. “I’m sure that what I acquired being here will give me the determination, knowledge, and strength to excel in my upcoming year because being here, my love for nursing has truly grown.”
In the seven weeks, the 22 apprentices worked a full-time schedule five days a week in a diverse range of medical areas. One apprentice may witness a live birth while another worked in the emergency room. The students get the chance to learn from, and help out, the nurses who may one day be their full-time colleagues.
“Now more than ever, we need to be able to recruit and retain high-quality nurses that share our commitment to excellent patient care,” said Vice President of Nursing Leigh Anne McMahon.
Annie Norris and Monica Purdy, who serve as the program’s coordinators, said the program gives the hospital’s nurses the chance to instill a sense of professionalism. The hospital also gets an opportunity to watch prospective nurses in action and see their ability and determination.
“We know that this is working, because we don’t have to go elsewhere to find our nurses,” Norris said. “We already know who they are. They know who we are. They know the culture of our hospital. We know their work ethics.”
The program was launched with the help of a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, with Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Harrison) working to secure the grant.
One of the 22 apprentices this summer is still in high school, while six are entering their first year of college and one is going into nursing as a second career. The rest of the apprentices are college students, and White Plains Hospital CEO Jon Schandler hopes the graduation ceremony isn’t the last he sees of them.
“We’d like to continue to invest in you in the future so we can make sure that in several years you are back and working with all of your colleagues at the hospital,” Schandler said. “I do mean this sincerely – please come back and work with us.”
For more information about White Plains Hospital visit http://www.wphospital.org.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.