At AdventHealth East Florida Division, 100% of graduate nurses in its residency program remained with the organization after one year in 2024.
For Michele Goeb-Burkett, MSN, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer of the division, that strong retention stems from work done before future employees even enter nursing school.
The division, part of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth, hired more than 800 nurses in the past year across its seven hospitals. It exceeded its 2024 recruitment goal for its nurse tech program by 125%, and exceeded its new graduate nurse hiring goal.
“We have to look at recruitment and retention in one bucket, because you really have to start getting to know an individual and taking care of them at the beginning of their career, and that’s what we’ve done,” Ms. Goeb-Burkett told Becker’s.
Pre-nursing school pipelines
The division’s nurse tech program includes patient care technicians who are enrolled or plan to enroll in nursing school.
“Before they even become a nurse, we try to figure out where their heart is,” she said. “What kind of patients do you like to work with? What kind of environment do you like?”
Instead of waiting until after they graduate, the AdventHealth division helps future nurses identify the environment where they would thrive the most — whether it is in the ICU, emergency room, medical-surgical or pediatrics.
“What’s been really interesting for me is how quickly these nurses that work for us as nurse techs and graduate and go on to be residents; they actually transition more seamlessly into practice,” Ms. Goeb-Burkett said.
These nurses transition into the roles quicker and with more confidence compared to those hired as nurse residents without experience at AdventHealth, she added.
“While they were in the nurse tech role, they got to learn the equipment, the physicians, nurse team members, and they developed the support system around them,” she said. “So when they became a nurse, they just had to learn how to be a nurse.”
She noted that historically, hiring for nurses has been reactionary.
“Until we got up to the pandemic, we hired what we needed,” she said. “If I have 10 vacancies, I hire for those 10 vacancies. Now, we’re really stepping back and saying, ‘What do we need next year? How can we do this proactive pipeline planning so that we always have the nurses we need at the bedside?'”
Leadership, skills development
The AdventHealth East Florida Division recently opened a new freestanding education and simulation center in DeLand, Fla., which includes five classrooms and two simulation labs designed to help prepare new nurses for hospital roles.
The division also offers a professional growth program that supports the advancement of clinical skills and leadership, with 30% of its registered nurses currently enrolled.
The professional excellence program encourages employees to think about their career paths and engage in conversations about what support they need to achieve their goals. This aligns with AdventHealth’s leadership institute, which offers skills training for nurses at various levels, with a focus on nurse manager and assistant nurse manager roles, Ms. Goeb-Burkett said.
“We have succession planning for the next level of leaders, and we can use that professional excellence tool as a way to guide them and the things they should be working on to meet the next level of their career,” she said.
Gen Z and career pathways
Ms. Goeb-Burkett has found that Generation Z — now with its oldest members being 28 years old — shows a heightened interest in building career pathways and leadership development earlier than previous generations.
“It’s definitely a newer trend,” she said. “It may have started before the pandemic, but this younger generation is coming out of school and they’re deciding, ‘I’m going to be a nurse practitioner’ or ‘I’m going to be a CRNA.’ I’m seeing that desire right away.”
The division has around 120 nurses enrolled in advanced practice programs working toward becoming nurse practitioners, a number that tends to rise each year.
Mentorship has been key to supporting these new graduate nurses as they build skills and prepare for leadership roles, Ms. Goeb-Burkett said.
She emphasized the importance of being open to new technologies and evolving care models for the next generation of healthcare leaders.
“We’re going to have to be open to how we maximize technology, such as AI and virtual care models,” Ms. Goeb-Burkett said, “and we’re going to have to think differently about how we leverage our care models to promote the best patient outcomes.”
