The purpose of the New Graduate program is to provide registered nurses who have just completed their training with the knowledge and skills to become a competent professional nurse. The program includes support throughout a nurse’s first year of practice. The basic New Graduate Program comprises 64 hours of classroom instruction. Support sessions with a mentor/counselor through the first year of practice assist trainees with making the transition into professional practice. In addition, special classes are offered to help participants gain the interpersonal and communication skills necessary to become competent professional nurses.

The Operating Room Nurse New Graduate Training Program prepares new graduate nurses to become competent circulators in the operating room.

Program Description
The Operating Room Nurse New Graduate Training Program is a one-year long internship. An RN license is required. Program participants will work 8-hour shifts following the schedule of the nurse educator and preceptors. Formal training will include a program based on Cottage’s standards of practice and the Perioperative Training Program of the American Operating Room Nurse Association (AORN). Following three months of didactic instruction, nurse trainees will be followed through the clinical settings of the operating room, including but not limited to open heart, vascular, neurology, laparoscopy, general, cystoscopy, and orthopedics, including total joint replacement.