Abstract
Background: In 2005 a new Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Unit was opened in the context of an adult Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit in San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. Therefore, a nursing-care training program has been established, in order to satisfy the special needs of pediatric patients affected by immuno-hematological diseases submitted to bone marrow transplantation or gene therapy. Aim: The training program aimed to guarantee a uniform theoretical and practical knowledge of the staff nurse dedicated to the pediatric patients and also to improve the quality level of care to the patients. The main endpoints of the program were the development of the personnel through an adequate staff nurse training program and the adoption of specific nurse-caring procedures according to the Evidence-Based Practice. Methods: The theoretical and a practical training program was structured over 42 days. During this time the nurses in training were tutored by a senior nurse and were not left autonomously looking after patients. The training program has been dedicated to newly employed pediatric nurses or nurses coming from other hospital Units. The analysis is applied to all nurses recruited between August 2005 to November 2008. The mid-term and final assessment have been carried out looking at the contents of 11 nursing-care areas and a score from 1(insufficient) to 5 (good) has been provided. Outcomes: Thirty-eight nurses have been enrolled in the program; 28 nurses have finished the training program. The 10 nurses who did not complete the program either laid off or were redirected to other areas because the mid term analysis was not satisfactory. All 28 nurses completing the program received a positive evaluation though 16 among these required extra training time to fully achieve all the endpoints (average 21 days, range 2-40). Conclusions: The present training program could achieve an effective selection of the nurses with early identification of motivated and valuable nurses with a professional profile qualified to bone marrow transplant pediatric setting. The estimated time for the training program (42 days) seemed to be insufficient; in facts most of the nurses get the endpoints after an average time of about 50 days. This result is depended on the nurse background and ability to comply to a new working setting, flexibility in the training duration will allow an increased number of nurses to successfully complete the program.