RN-To-BSN / Nurse Residency Programs | January 2023

FOCUS: RN-TO-BSN/ NURSE RESIDENCY PROGRAMS JANUARY 2024

RN-to-BSN/Nurse Residency Programs

PRESENTED BY:

®

®

Table of Contents

In This Issue 2

Editor’s Notebook

Editor’s Notebook Happy Nurse New Year!

It’s 2024, and it’s time to reflect on the trends we saw in nursing in 2023 and transform them into attainable career goals.

Here are seven resolutions to consider for your nursing career in 2024:

Articles 4

The RN-to-BSN Path: More Than Career Advancement

By Julia Quinn-Szcesuil

8

What to Look for in a Nurse Residency Program

By Louis Pilla

12

How St. Jude Keeps Nurses and Builds Culture With a Revitalized Nurse Residency Program

By Morgan Melancon

14

Nurse Residencies: Norm or Exception?

By Keith Carlson

1. Get more education by earning an advanced nursing degree online.

Better-educated nurses lead to better patient outcomes, and advanced nursing degrees are becoming the standard for entry-level nursing positions with higher wages.

Powerful lobbies have been pushing for the BSN to be accepted as the minimum qualification for registered nurses for decades, and in 2017, New York State formally signed what has been referred to as the “BSN in 10 Law,” which requires registered nurses in New York to obtain at least a bachelor of science in nursing within 10 years of their initial licensure.

Although the law only applies to nurses within New York, the move has nationwide ramifications. A growing number of healthcare facilities throughout the country have begun to show a strong preference for RN candidates who’ve completed a BSN degree or higher, and the New York BSN in 10 Law signals that state and federal authorities are coming around to this point of view.

The flexibility of online learning has opened doors for many nurses and helped them explore other creative ways to balance work and school and make it more convenient to get their BSN in 10 years.

2. Become a nurse practitioner.

While there is a shortage of RNs, the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) is growing. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) reports that the number of NPs has reached an all-time high of 325,000. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that between 2021 and 2031, the number of NPs will grow by 46%, making it one of the fastest-growing professions in the country.

Now that 27 states allow NPs full practice authority to enjoy a high degree of autonomy compared with RNs, many NPs operate their practices, have prescriptive privileges, and have enough seniority to control their schedules.

3. Keep an eye out for hiring bonuses.

If you’re looking for a new nursing role, employers increasingly offer signing bonuses to healthcare employees, especially in remote communities, where filling vacancies is extremely difficult.

According to Business Insider, some companies offer signing bonuses and relocation expenses in the $7,500 to $40,000 range. Some employers are also paying nurses retention bonuses and bonuses for working extra shifts.

4. Be mindful of nurse burnout.

A recent academic study defined nurse burnout as “the state of emotional exhaustion in which the individual feels overwhelmed by work to the point of feeling fatigued, unable to face the demands of the job, and unable to engage with others.”

Although governments and healthcare employers are investing in programs to help nurses stay safe, healthy, and productive, take control of your health and mental wellness.

Be mindful of burnout and speak out. Engage in activities outside of work that bring joy. Make rest and work breaks a priority. Cultivate a personal support group of family and friends. Seek the assistance of a mental health professional.

2

RN-to-BSN/Nurse Residency Programs

®

5. Speak out about nurse staffing levels.

Nursing unions and professional organizations have voiced concerns over regulating staffing ratios for decades, and only California and Massachusetts have passed legally mandated nurse-to-patient ratios. Speak out and make your state become the next one.

6. Encourage more men to become nurses.

Women have predominantly occupied nursing, but times are changing for the better. In 1960, just 2% of nurses were male. Today, that number is up to nearly 13%.

People typically seek out those they can relate to, especially in healthcare. Male patients may feel more comfortable discussing specific health-related topics with nurses who are men.

More male nurses allow for a more balanced workforce that better reflects the population. Nursing is among the fastest-growing U.S. professions, and many men see the benefit of choosing a career that offers a bright outlook.

7. Get your master’s degree in nursing education.

Over 91,000 qualified applicants were turned away from nursing schools despite needing more nurses during the 2021–2022 school year. The United States is facing a nursing faculty shortage, with over 1,600 faculty vacancies.

Nurse educators shape the next generation of nurses who contribute to an essential workforce. Consider giving back to the nursing profession and becoming a nurse educator.

To kick off 2024, Minority Nurse profiles the RN-to-BSN program and the critical role of nurse residency programs: • The RN-to-BSN Path: More Than Career Advancement

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS/ EDITORIAL OFFICE 902 Carnegie Center, Suite 140 Princeton, NJ 08540 212-431-4370 n Fax: 212-941-7842

SPRINGER PUBLISHING COMPANY CEO & Publisher Mary Gatsch Vice President & CFO Jeffrey Meltzer

FOCUS: RN-to-BSN/Nurse Residency Programs Editor-in-Chief Reneé Hewitt Creative Director Kevin Kall Digital Media Manager Andrew Bennie National Sales Manager Andrew Bennie Sr. Sales Manager, Recruitment & Education Phone: 212-845-9933 Email: abennie@springerpub.com

As the nursing industry continues its drive to have most of the nursing workforce prepared with a baccalaureate degree or higher, many RNs are looking to RN-to-BSN programs.

• What to Look for in a Nurse Residency Program A nurse residency program must be a good fit, so here’s what to look for when investigating programs.

• How St. Jude Keeps Nurses and Builds Culture With a Revitalized Nurse Residency Program Learn how St. Jude’s nurse residency program has successfully onboarded three groups of new nurses to date, bringing more than 60 nurses to the bedside with 100% retention of every cohort after one year, far exceeding the national retention benchmark.

• Nurse Residencies: Norm or Exception?

We explore how new graduate nurses entering the labor market clamor for the chance to land a coveted position in new nurse residency programs only a lucky few can win.

“For us who nurse, our nursing is a thing, which, unless in it we are making progress every year, every month, every week, take my word for it we are going back. The more experience we gain, the more progress we can make.” –Florence Nightingale.

—Reneé

For editorial inquiries and submissions: editor@minoritynurse.com For subscription inquiries and address changes: © Copyright 2024 Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction, distribution, or translation without expressed written permission is strictly prohibited.

admin@minoritynurse.com

The RN-to-BSN Path: More Than Career Advancement

By Julia Quinn-Szcesuil

N

urses gain clinical and academic experience throughout their careers, all of which combine to form a foundation of essential skills. As the nursing industry continues its drive to have most of its workforce prepared with a baccalaureate degree or higher, many RNs are looking to RN-to-BSN programs.

Whether a nurse has been in the field for 5 or 35 years, or is a nursing student considering the best path, baccalaureate degree programs offer additional training in areas that develop critical thinking skills and are proven to bring better patient outcomes with further gains in leadership, research, and community health.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) The Impact of Education on Nursing Practice report, the number of nurses with a BSN is growing, and positive results follow.

Research, including The Case for Academic Progression 2013 report from the Robert Wood

Tammy McClenny, EdD, MSN, RN, a clinical associate professor at the University of West Georgia’s Tanner Health Systems School of Nursing.

Johnson Foundation, consistently shows that patients improve when nurses with a minimum of a baccalaureate degree provide care.

“That’s important because, as shown with the previous literature, mortality and morbidity rates decrease with BSN nurses,” says Tammy McClenny, EdD, MSN, RN, a clinical associate professor at the University of West Georgia’s Tanner Health Systems School of Nursing.

“That’s significant.”

Additional Education Brings Broad Perspective When nurses have the RNbased clinical experience to be excellent nurses, they gain the additional BS/BSN broadscope perspective of nursing care’s impact on community health or national nursing policies, for example, their nursing changes, says McClenny.

“You learn more about how to apply what you are learning to what you are doing in practice,” she says.

While improving overall patient outcomes and quality of care, a BSN often changes a nurse’s career trajectory. Michele Lani Bray, DNP, MS, PHNA-BC, BSN, RN, is an assistant professor of population health nursing and program director for the online RN-to-BS program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing and says that RNs find the additional education opens up professional and personal opportunities.

“Most hospitals and health departments prefer and only hire BS/BSN nurses,” says Bray.

“Advancing your knowledge and skills leads to job satisfaction and career and earnings advancement.”

Michele Lani Bray, DNP, MS, PHNA-BC, BSN, RN, is an assistant professor of population health nursing and program director for the online RN-to-BS program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing.

Attaining a BSN also aligns nurses with the industry standards that are increasingly focused on nurses who are trained with a BS/BSN or higher. However, nurses with an RN might find the thought of returning to school daunting. When they have family, work, and outside interests to juggle, applying for an RN-toBSN program might need more support. Looking for the right program for your needs is key.

Find the Right Program Compare programs to find one that will fit your lifestyle and financial abilities while offering a rigorous curriculum that will equip you for the nursing roles and opportunities you want to pursue, says McClenny. Work with your employer to see if educational reimbursement is offered and ask a school about potential financial aid.

Sometimes, the most challenging barrier is making time for an RN-to-BSN program, but it is possible. Many schools offer asynchronous programs in which courses are completed

www.minoritynurse.com

to fit the student’s schedule instead of being held on a specific day and time, says Bray.

That helps make an RN-to-BSN program more attainable for nurses with multiple priorities, says McClenny, but online courses are no less rigorous than in-person courses. When considering the schedule that will work best for their time constraints, setting aside sufficient time for coursework is critical to success.

What should you look for in a program? Bray and McClenny say taking the time to compare programs will pay off in the end. Nurses will seek “a curriculum focused on advancing your skills and knowledge to shape you into a well-rounded, culturally competent, critically compassionate nurse, a thoughtful, skilled communicator, and enhances your leadership skills,” says Bray.

McClenny says to look for the program’s flexibility and see if a program overview or introduction is available. Look at program requirements to see if you need to take any courses and what the curriculum offers. Are there opportunities for interprofessional communication and development or real-world experiences to combine your academic knowledge with your clinical skills? McClenny, whose students complete a capstonelike project, says those realworld projects are often when nursing work and educational training help guide students to their passion.

An RN-to-BSN program is more than just what happens in a clinical experience or the classroom. Any academic program should offer nurses opportunities for personal and professional growth

www.dailynurse.com

www.springerpub.com

5

for building their network.

Whether technical, careerbased, or educational, support should be easily accessible to nursing students in the RN-toBSN program.

Many students returning to school for a BSN are already working and have other responsibilities, so they are balancing assignments with other commitments in tight schedules. Access to someone who can help with a middleof-the-night technical glitch could be critical to success.

Those tools are necessary because students are more likely to complete a program with support. And no matter

6

how a degree program is delivered, establishing relationships with program advisors and faculty members will also smooth the path. These folks offer support by navigating your educational journey alongside you, says Bray, so they can guide and advise if you need to reduce or increase your course load, shift classes, or find academic support for a particularly challenging subject.

Becoming Part of National Nursing Many nurses look to an RNto-BSN program to advance their careers but find an unexpected benefit in promoting

RN-to-BSN/Nurse Residency Programs

and improving the nursing industry. Nurses with additional education are positioned to gain advanced degrees like the MSN or DNP. These nurses represent the industry in a broader stage, can help fill the primary care provider gap, and can help alleviate the nursing faculty shortage. Because nursing makes constant progress in developing evidencebased practices, McClenny says BSN coursework often reflects real-time industry needs. “I ask students, ‘What are your managers, your administrators, your educators looking for from you?’”

With many hospitals and organizations now requiring a BS/BSN, career options expand significantly with the degree.

“The AACN and healthcare organizations with Magnet hospital status fundamentally view nurses with BS/BSN as leading to a better quality of care for patients and improved outcomes,” says Bray. “The nurse with a BS/BSN in nursing has greater opportunities to select a position from various nursing settings.”

Julia Quinn-Szcesuil is a freelance writer based in Bolton, Massachusetts.

#1 ONLINE GRADUATE NURSING

Whether you’re searching for an advanced practice degree to expand your clinical role or training for a new position in nurse leadership, our online, nationally ranked graduate programs will prepare you for the next phase of your career.

CERTIFICATE OF GRADUATE STUDY PROGRAMS •

Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP)

•

Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)

•

Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)

•

Healthcare Leadership (HL)

•

Nursing Education (NE)

•

Nursing Informatics (NI)

What to Look for in a Nurse Residency Program

By Louis Pilla

A

s in most things, getting off to a good start as a nurse can help ensure a long, successful, and satisfying career. With nursing shortages and nurse burnout still taking a tremendous toll on the profession, hospitals must do all they can to ensure new nurses have the tools to succeed.

Organizations help ensure success for new nurses through nurse residency programs, also called transition to practice or new grad programs. These structured learning experiences can be of great benefit.

One recent study found that readiness for practice improved significantly for nurse residents, as did nurse retention perceptions, indicating that nurse residents were more likely to be retained at the study organization. The 1- and 2-year nurse retention rates during the 3 years of the study also showed notable improvement.

In this article, we’ll offer specific suggestions on what to look for in a nurse residency program so that you can find a good fit. But first, let’s look at when you should start investigating those programs.

Nursing students should “use the time that they’re in school to start identifying those organizations that they want to work at sooner rather than later,” notes Cosme.

Many programs start only two to three cohorts a year, so they have very specific recruitment timelines for when they accept applications from new graduate nurses, she says. “My biggest piece of advice to a new graduate nurse is not to miss that window.”

the ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation Program.

Accreditation helps ensure that programs provide a rich educational experience.

“Accreditation validates that the programs are consistently following evidence-based standards that support nurses in their transition to nursing practice,” according to Christine Young, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, DNP, chief of hospital-based services and chief nursing officer, Akron Children’s Hospital.

Sara R. Grieshop, MHI, BSN, RN, practice excellence supervisor, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

Sheri Cosme DNP, RN, NPD-BC, director, Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP), Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship Accreditation, American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

Start Early To discover if a nurse residency program is right for you, don’t wait until you pass your licensure exam. “Waiting until they pass their NCLEX many times is too late,” says Sheri Cosme DNP, RN, NPD-BC, director, Practice Transition Accreditation Program (PTAP), Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship Accreditation, American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

the program to find out how they balanced class time with working off-shifts, suggests Sara R. Grieshop, MHI, BSN, RN, practice excellence supervisor, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. “Don’t hesitate to interview the programs as much as they are interviewing you,” notes Grieshop.

Cosme says to take advantage of your time at your clinical rotations and interview the facility. “That’s going to give them a good sense of what the organization is all about.”

In addition, Cosme suggests checking social media to learn what nurses say about the organization. Also, reach out to employees. You might also ask to speak to a nurse who has recently completed

You must make sure, says Cosme, that the organization has a specific plan in place for the program. For instance, the organization should tell you how much time you will spend with a preceptor or the milestones you need to hit to reach full competence.

What to Look for As you research nurse residency programs, consider the following areas: Accreditation. Find out if the nurse residency program carries accreditation.

As of mid-November 2023, some 250 programs in 831 healthcare sites were part of

www.minoritynurse.com

Christine Young, MSN, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, DNP, chief of hospital-based services and chief nursing officer, Akron Children’s Hospital.

Length of time. Cosme says a nurse residency program will run between 6 and 12 months.

“A majority of the time, the programming is front-loaded,” she notes so that during the first part of the program, the nurse gets more concentrated professional development and support.

Seek programs that provide at least 6 to 12 months of program support and a preceptorship, which will help you

www.dailynurse.com

www.springerpub.com

9

acclimate to your intended specialty with a structured orientation and clinical training at the bedside, suggests Laura Douglas, MSN-Ed, RN, NPD-BC, CCRN-K, manager of the transition to practice programs (nurse residency, fellowship, and respiratory residency)

Laura Douglas, MSN-Ed, RN, NPD-BC, CCRN-K, manager of the transition to practice programs at Memorial Hermann Health System.

10

at Memorial Hermann Health System.

While clinical orientation may last only 3 to 6 months, depending on specialty, a residency program supports the new graduate first through orientation, then through the initial phases of independent practice for up to a year, according to Young. Support into the second year is also ideal, she notes.

The nurse residency program should provide opportunities for participant feedback and evaluation, including regularly scheduled formal meetings to examine strengths and areas for growth, as well as provisions for individual self-assessment/self-reflection, according to Karen T. Pardue, PhD, RN, CNE, FNAP, ANEF, associate provost for strategic initiatives and professor, School of Nursing and Population Health, University of New

RN-to-BSN/Nurse Residency Programs

England. Also, the program should dedicate attention to activities and interactions that build a sense of community and provide peer support, heightening the new employee’s sense of connection and belonging, she suggests.

Karen T. Pardue, PhD, RN, CNE, FNAP, ANEF, associate provost for strategic initiatives and professor, School of Nursing and Population Health, University of New England.

Preceptorship. It would help if you were working with a preceptor, and ideally, one or two preceptors through the orientation phase of your residency program, notes Cosme. You should also check if you will have a mentor. While those two roles intersect, they provide different support, notes Young. The mentor, Young notes, could be a previous nurse resident who remembers what it was like to be a new grad in the specialty area they are working in and is willing to connect with the new nurse regularly to offer support, identify resources, and so on. The preceptor must evaluate the new nurse’s ability to demonstrate competency in practice and provide feedback during orientation.

Specialty experience. Determine if the nurse residency program will provide education in your specialty area, notes Cosme.

If you’re unsure which unit is best for you, look for a residency program that allows you to work in various units, notes Grieshop. “This will allow you to broaden your horizons beyond what your clinical hours achieved,” she notes.

Never-Ending Learning Nurses in a residency program, notes Cosme, should “be a sponge, soak it all up, wring themselves out, and soak up even more because they will be learning in nursing every day. I think the biggest blessing in healthcare is that things are constantly changing. We’re always learning.”

Louis Pilla is a seasoned publishing expert with over 20 years of experience providing content and digital products to healthcare audiences.

@NORTHERN NEW MEXICO COLLEGE

WE GRADUATE HOLISTIC NURSES! loving THE UNIQUE, n Continue your nursing career!

HOLISTIC, n 100% program ONLINE satisfaction RN to BSN n Board Certified Advanced Holistic NURSING Nurse faculty PROGRAM

@NORTHERN NEW MEXICO COLLEGE

n Emphasis on self-care

and self development

$295 / $320 per credit hour In-State /Out-of-State Contact: etrabka@nnmc.edu / 505.747.2209 / www.nnmc.edu

How St. Jude Keeps Nurses and Builds Culture With a Revitalized Nurse Residency Program

By Morgan Melancon

R

ecent nursing school graduates account for the highest number of registered nurses available for recruitment in U.S. hospitals. Yet, they leave the profession at a higher rate than long-term nurses.

Many become stressed when they find themselves unprepared for the realities of clinical practice. Many experience additional stresses if they have relocated to a city without friends, are unfamiliar with the local culture, and need more time to explore their new surroundings.

How a Residency Program Can Help Early Career Nurses Before the pandemic, St. Jude had low nurse turnover and a large pool of applicants from which to choose. Since then, despite the hospital’s efforts, nurses have been experiencing the same fatigue phenomenon seen at hospitals nationwide.

As a result, St. Jude invited its nurses to reimagine and reenergize the institution’s Nurse Residency Program (NRP), created in 2012 and focused on inpatient pediatric oncology. During its review, a planning team identified barriers to recruiting and retaining new graduate nurses.

The redesigned program, accredited as a practice transition program by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), now onboards each resident into a generic graduate nurse role. This shortens delays in licensure, kickstarts their professional development, and helps the new nurses build friendships within their cohort from day one.

Following onboarding, the residents participate in a week of NCLEX study preparations,

which has resulted in pass rates well above state and national benchmarks.

Morgan Melancon, MSN, RN, CCRN, is the director of Nursing Education and Professional Development at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Clinical Rotations To ensure that residents find specialties that appeal to them, St. Jude created clinical rotations similar to those employed in medical school. Residents spend 6 weeks in clinical rotations, spending shifts in 12 to 40 patient care areas: inpatient, outpatient, surgical services, and ICU. These rotations introduce the nurse residents to the continuum of care at St. Jude, build relationships across the organization, and allow residents to see all the potential nursing opportunities.

After the clinical rotations, the new nurses are matched to a home unit using the National Resident Matching Program’s algorithm. The entire St. Jude nursing family meets the new team members on Match Day. Afterward, nurse residents receive a unit-based orientation and complete a 12-monthlong curriculum that brings the cohort together for monthly sessions of didactic lessons, simulation, and various activities to assist with transitioning from novice to competent nurse.

Growth of the Whole Nurse Traditional simulations have been replaced with immersive experiences. NRP leaders built a curriculum that provides growth for the whole nurse, even outside work. Nurse residents learn patient assessment and emergency response skills while consulting with personal finance and wellness experts.

For many new nurses, the workplace isn’t a problem. Nurses relocating from other cities experience a disconnection from unfamiliar local cultures and social life.

With a sizable percentage of out-of-state nurses joining St. Jude, the NRP team organizes regular social outings to tour Memphis’ cultural and entertainment venues. The new nurses also participate in community service projects to “pay it forward” and contribute to positive growth within their new environments.

Program Results The revised program has successfully onboarded three groups of new nurses, bringing more than 60 nurses to the bedside with 100% retention of every cohort after one year, far exceeding the national retention benchmark. Changes to the hiring process allowed

for earlier onboarding of high-quality candidates and an increase in cohort size, filling over 90% of RN vacancies with each cycle and allowing expansion into the surgical and ambulatory nursing divisions.

But the support for its residents continues. After the nurse residents graduate from the program, they transition into a mentor program where they obtain support from a senior nurse to help guide them through their second year of professional practice.

A welcome benefit of the revised NRP is the increased diversity within each cohort, bringing critical multilingual skills and new cultural perspectives to St. Jude.

This highly skilled, diverse, and, importantly, satisfied nursing workforce is vital to the St. Jude mission of providing top-flight clinical care while advancing cures and means of prevention for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.

Morgan Melancon, MSN, RN, CCRN, is the director of Nursing Education and Professional Development

at

St.

Jude

Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.

Recent Nurse Residency Program cohort at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

www.minoritynurse.com

www.dailynurse.com

www.springerpub.com

13

Nurse Residencies: Norm or Exception?

By Keith Carlson

14

RN-to-BSN/Nurse Residency Programs

W

hen new graduate nurses enter the labor market, many will clamor for the chance to land a position in new nurse residency programs. Presented as a game that only a lucky few can win, new nurse residencies provide great career-launching benefits for a small cohort of novice nurses. Meanwhile, their less fortunate new grad colleagues take positions where they may be subject to extremely poor (or veritably nonexistent) precepting and essentially set up to sink or swim.

Why are new nurse residencies so few and far between, leaving countless thousands of new graduate nurses to fend for themselves after being thrown to the lions? Is this seriously how we want our neophyte nurses introduced to their new careers? And who does such a system serve? Indeed, not our patients or our society as a whole.

Feeding Our Young, Not Eating Our Young When asked about new nurse residencies, some old-school nurses may gruffly say, “When I graduated, nobody held my hand. It was trial by fire, and I had only myself to rely on.

Why should these new nurses be coddled? We never were. Let them sink or swim!”

In these more enlightened times, we realize that just because something wasn’t done in the past doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it now if it has qualifiable or quantifiable benefits. From the point of view of many nurse educators, new nurse residencies are more than worth the time and effort

needed to create and administer them.

“Nurse residency programs are crucial for healthcare organizations to enhance new graduate nurse retention by providing a structured transition from academia to clinical practice,” shares Damion Jenkins, MSN, RN, a nursing staff development and education specialist, NCLEX prep expert, and nurse career coach and mentor.

“These programs offer a supportive environment that fosters professional development, allowing nurses to gain confidence and competence in their roles,” Jenkins adds.

“Improved retention translates to a more experienced and skilled nursing workforce, positively impacting patient safety through better continuity of care.”

In terms of the long-term care environment, Jenkins states, “Residency programs often don’t exist [in long-term care], and getting administrators to allow enough staff to manage them is difficult. Longterm care facilities may often only have one nurse educator.

Without qualified nurse educators to develop and manage these programs, these facilities will continue to face extremely high turnover rates.”

Jenkins is correct—with the constant threat of nurse turnover amidst a nursing shortage that never seems to go away, we need our new nurses to stay in the profession, not abandon it before they even have a chance to find their sea legs.

If 18% of new nurses leave the profession within the first year (likely a significant understatement), we’re losing nearly

one in five of our new nurses just when we need them most.

Whether the cause is overworking, stress, understaffing, bullying, incivility, or other factors, the plain fact is this: we should be feeding our young, not eating them, and one way to feed them is through the model of new nurse residencies.

A Culture of Learning According to Jenkins, new nurse residencies serve multiple purposes, including creating the work environments we want to see in healthcare.

“These programs contribute to a culture of ongoing learning and collaboration, ensuring healthcare teams stay abreast of the latest updates in the delivery of care and best practices for optimal outcomes,” Jenkins states.

If new nurse residencies are led and staffed by nurses who feel deeply about the positive aspects of education, learning, and the optimization of care, the culture of the entire workplace will feel the repercussions of that way of looking at the system of which we’re all an intrinsic part.

Back then, a nurse would attend a nursing school run by a particular hospital. In this setting, the student nurse would receive intensive handson training and, more often than not, be hired as a staff nurse following graduation.

While these diploma programs weren’t degree-based, the clinical training was robust, and one can assume that a new nurse residency wasn’t needed based on the rigors of a hospital-based education.

In the twenty-first century, with varying degrees of success

www.minoritynurse.com

in integrating didactic university or college-based education with supervised clinical experiences, new graduate nurses need more high-quality handson training to succeed.

Healthcare is significantly more complex than in centuries past, and the amount of clinical and didactic knowledge that nursing students need to absorb is astronomical. In other words, new grads need all the help they can get, and we owe it to them, ourselves, and society to ensure our new nurses are fully prepared for the complicated twenty-first-century care environment we’re hoping to launch them into.

Are Universal Residencies Realistic?

As Jenkins previously shared, new nurse residencies must be fully staffed, and many facilities start from a default position of having too few nurse educators. Hospital budgets are enormous, and the line item of a new nurse residency program is easy pickings when cuts are needed.

However, if the federal government is sincere about its commitment to the nursing workforce and nurses’ central role in American healthcare, funding could be available to create a robust system of nationwide new nurse residencies. Perhaps it could be shown that a massive investment in the retention of new nurses would save even more money over time when it comes to improved quality of care, decreased workforce attrition, and a less severe nursing shortage.

And perhaps, in a historic public/private partnership

www.dailynurse.com

www.springerpub.com

15

between the federal government and foundations dedicated to healthcare—such as the Kaiser Family Foundation— funding sources could be found for hospitals to be incentivized to successfully create and maintain new nurse residency programs in the interest of the health of the country.

Some may say that universal new nurse residencies

are an unrealistic pipe dream that could never come to fruition. Still, with creativity, forethought, and an eye toward innovation, we could create a system where every new grad nurse who wanted a spot in a residency could have one.

Do we want our new nurses to leave the profession in droves? Doesn’t it serve us all to support our recent graduates

and usher them into their new careers with increased confidence and skill?

The days of throwing our novice nurses to the lions need to end. Instead, we need to feed them the educational and experiential nutrition they need for success. After all, every new nurse’s success is one that our society can share.

Keith Carlson, BSN, RN, NC-BC, has been a nurse since 1996. As a holistic career coach, nurse podcaster, writer, blogger, and well-known motivational speaker, Keith empowers nurses regarding personal branding; professional networking; entrepreneurship; resume, job search, and interview strategies; emotional and relational intelligence; personal wellness; and the building of a dynamic nursing career.