What are your thoughts on completing a nurse residency program as a requirement of your employer following graduation from nursing school?
A. With the increased complexity of the health care environment, new graduates struggle with the transition into clinical practice. This matter is related to several issues: sicker patient in an increasingly complex health care setting, the shortened gap between taking the NCLEX and being licensed, variable transition experiences, increased patient workload due to the nursing shortage, high job stress and turnover rates in new graduate RNs (approximately 25% of new nurses leave their position within the first year of practice), and practice errors.1.What do you think about the issue? 2.Considering This Information:What can you do to ease your transition process?B. The clinical environment presents an engaging and rewarding experience for nursing students to begin applying nursing concepts and skills learned in the classroom setting to the practice setting. However, changes impacting health care, decreased clinical site availability, increased student enrollment, and faculty shortages have required key stakeholders in both academia and practice to develop alternative models of clinical education that will prepare tomorrow’s professional nurse to practice competently and safely. Nurse residency programs are a move in that direction, where a graduate nurse participates in a 1-year program that fosters role transition and clinical decision-making skills grounded in evidence-based practice. Providing a smooth transition into practice has also contributed to increased retention of new graduate nurses and decreased job burnout following completion of the nurse residency program (UHC/AACN, 2016a).Considering This Information:What are your thoughts on completing a nurse residency program as a requirement of your employer following graduation from nursing school?
