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With newly formed clinical education programs, nurses at Southern California Hospital at Culver City have more opportunities to continue learning and expand their skill set than ever before. The programs train nurses in specialized areas such as critical care and emergency to allow them to work in departments where demand is high, particularly in light of the recent pandemic.

“When COVID hit, the U.S. experienced a national shortage of nurses with the hardest hit areas being intensive care units, emergency rooms, and operating rooms,” said Jessica Dela Rosa, director of clinical education at Southern California Hospital at Culver City. “That blew up the opportunity for nurses to get specialty training in those areas of care.”

Dela Rosa and her colleagues started a Critical Care Internship which accepts nurses who are already experienced in medical-surgical or telemetry for placement in the ICU or ER. Interns enter a 6-week training course that teaches fundamental knowledge on practicing in these areas to develop their skills and competencies. The education department has gone through three cohorts so far, with a total of 15 nurses successfully completing the program.

Also kicking off this month is a 3-month operating room (OR) training program, which is perhaps the most difficult specialty training program to implement in an acute care environment. The first cohort is made up of two new graduates and three experienced nurses.