(BIVN) – Hilo Medical Center celebrated the latest graduates of its Nurse Residency Training Program during an event at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel on Friday.

From the Hilo Medical Center news release:

Today, a total of 39 nurses graduated Hilo Medical Center’s Nurse Residency Program. This year-long training program in its thirteenth year is one of the state’s longest running nurse residency programs that trains nurses in the Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Medical Unit, Surgical/Pediatrics Unit, Transitional Care, and Operating Room. In addition, Hilo Medical Center’s training program became the first in the state to graduate nurses into an outpatient clinic and long term care facility.

“Today’s graduation of 39 nurses is an example of the investment our hospital makes in our nurses to show how much we value the work they do in caring for our patients,” said Dan Brinkman, CEO of Hilo Medical Center, at today’s graduation.

“To date, we have hired and trained over 306 nurses through our program, 212 of these nurses are still with us, making up about half of our current nursing workforce,” said Arthur Sampaga Jr., Chief Nurse Officer. “I want to give a special thanks for our nurse managers, educators, clinical specialists, and organizational development team that assisted these nurses throughout the year.”

The graduation ceremony also recognized that Nurse Residents of the Year, Aaron Brown of the Medical Unit and Melani Jumapit of the Transitional Care Unit, and the Preceptor of the Year, Malia Lee of the Medical Unit.