SOARING: A Residency Program for Unlicensed Assistive Personnel: Meeting the Demands While Retaining Highly Skilled, Engaged Clinical Technicians.

A complex healthcare environment requires an optimal nursing skill mix at a reasonable cost to sustain safe, quality, and efficient patient care. An innovative, unlicensed assistive personnel residency program was developed to fill open positions with a skillful, confident, and engaged clinical technician workforce. The program resulted in highly skilled and confident clinical technicians, a 4% increase in engagement scores, and a 14% increase in retention rate.