WHS Implements New Nursing Residency Program to Support First Year Nurses

By Andrew Wilson

Doctors complete residency training after graduating from medical school to give them experience in applying what they’ve learned to real life situations. A new program at Washington Health System (WHS) is applying the same concept to nursing.

“New physicians need support, so why wouldn’t new nurses need support?” said Tiffany Reed, MSN, RN, an Education Specialist and the Nursing Residency Program coordinator at WHS. “The first year is the hardest for new nurses.”

To support new nurses, WHS officially announced the implementation of a Nurse Residency program based on the Vizient and American Association of Colleges of Nursing (Vizient/AACN) Nurse Residency Program™.

“It’s a transition-to-practice program,” said Reed, who added that the program is open to nurses with less than one year experience. The residency program will meet monthly and will be comprised of four cohorts throughout 2023. The first cohort, which consists of nurses hired by WHS in January, February, and March, will begin in April.

Vizient/AACN, which, since 2002, has been providing more than 600 healthcare organizations with these programs and counts more than 200,000 nurses among its graduates, designed the curriculum that WHS will be using for the nursing residency, but Reed says WHS can modify it to fit their needs. The program is designed to give nurses confidence in their critical thinking and decision-making, as well as improve their communication skills.

“The ability to think critically is huge in healthcare,” said Reed. “Nursing school teaches you how to be a nurse, but it doesn’t teach you how to deal with difficult situations a new nurse might encounter.”

For example, a nurse may have been taught how to perform a routine procedure like taking a patient’s blood pressure in nursing school, but it can be challenging to take the blood pressure of someone who resists. So, what should a nurse facing such a situation do? Reed says that it begins with communication – communicating with the patient and with colleagues.

“Communication will be the topic of the first session in the residency program,” said Reed, who is clear about who will be helped by improving communication skills. “The benefits of having a program like this are not only for graduate nurses but will be felt by other staff and by our patients.”

In addition to classroom work, the nursing residents will be applying evidence-based practice to everything they do in the program.

“Part of the residency program will involve a project where the nurses will need to do research,” said Reed. “The result of this research may be a performance improvement project which could change the way that nursing care is delivered at WHS.”

One thing that the residency program is expected to help with is reducing staff turnover, which became particularly bad during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses were on the frontlines and had to deal daily with issues like chronic fatigue, stress, and anxiety while seeking to provide quality care for their patients.

“COVID hit healthcare hard,” said Reed. “It was a scary and traumatic time for everyone. Because COVID cases are slowing down, we are taking more time to focus on new nurses, providing them with support and resources necessary to excel in their careers.”

Besides benefiting the nurses who participate in the program, Reed believes nursing colleagues and other healthcare staff will benefit from improved team dynamics and morale and increased efficiency and safety. Patients will also benefit because the program has been shown to improve the quality of care at institutions that implement the residency program.

“Transitioning into the nursing profession is a challenge for new graduate nurses. They are asked to jump into difficult roles and expand their development quickly, leading to high turnover. We know that it takes a full year to grow their confidence, competence and engagement in the profession and the organization “said Evy Olson, Associate Vice President of Nursing Programs at Vizient. “We are pleased that WHS has made the commitment to support theses nurses during their transition into practice and their professional development through a nurse residency program.”

Employing more than 2,000 highly trained medical professionals, Washington Health System provides health care services centered at its flagship 260 licensed bed hospital in Washington, PA, and at more than 40 off-site locations throughout three counties. In addition, Washington Health System has diagnostic centers, outpatient care facilities, the Wilfred R. Cameron Wellness Center, and hospice care, all seamlessly working together to provide excellent patient-and-family-centered care.