Fifteen new graduate nurses have joined Columbia Memorial Hospital and a fifteenth will
arrive soon, according to hospital Education Director Sue Sparacino. All fifteen have successfully completed their preceptorship and state licensure exam, she said.
“All will be staffing the medical-surgical units. This significantly strengthens our nursing
department and brings in new ideas from outside the hospital,” said Sparacino.
“The transition from nursing school to being a full-time Registered Nurse in a hospital
setting is enhanced by a preceptor program which consists of eight weeks of one-on--one
training with a registered nurse preceptor.”
These preceptors have also gone through training in adult learning styles, said Sparacino,
which enhances the new nurses’ training program.
“The goal of this program is to educate new nurses to policy and procedures, apply theory
in practice, and to ultimately have well-rounded nurses with focused, critical thinking skills
who enhance care to patients,” said Sparacino.
The new nurses include Toby Marzahl and Nicole Sammons from Russell Sage College;
Ken Walther and Dale Keenan from Hudson Valley Community College; Nyhera Guy from
Morrisville State University; and Kristen Conway, Tanya Reiley, Azra Stracuzzi, Carrie
Sundheim, Justine Shultis, Kim Richards, Jennifer Davis, Antoinette Romito, Amanda Raco,
and Chris Stier – all from Columbia Greene Community College.
