| Saturday, November 12, 2005: 2:45 PM-4:00 PM | |||
| Rural Nurse Residency Programs in Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming | |||
| Learning Objective #1: Compare contextual rural nursing issues with national studies | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Compare and contrast differences in three approaches to rural nurse residencies | |||
| Approximately one-fourth of America's population lives in rural areas and struggles to access adequate health care. Compared with urban Americans, rural residents have higher poverty rates, more health issues and fewer health care providers. Hospitals turn away clients due to the lack of nursing skills (Center for Health Workforce Studies, 2003). Short on resources and big on need, rural hospitals have difficulty recruiting and retaining nurses. Lower salaries and fewer benefits hamper recruitment. Once hired, providing the educational programs needed to retain newly graduated nurses can seem impossible. Experts contend that rural nursing is a specialty requiring more skills than taught in basic undergraduate education. Bushy posits rural nursing practice requires a workforce able to perform in an advanced practice role (2000). Three different approaches to rural nurse residencies sponsored by The Department of Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) are described. Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming programs offer diversity in organization, delivery, and collaboration with a similar goal. The programs seek to improve patient care by increasing the confidence and skills of newly hired nurses. A nurse residency program is a series of learning and work experiences designed to assist nursing graduates as they transition into their first professional role. Transition experiences have an emphasis on the development of clinical and leadership skills for the advanced beginner nurse to be successful as a full partner within the healthcare team. | |||
| Organizer: | Deana Molinari, PhD, RN, CNS | ||
| Presenters: | Marilyn Meyer Bratt, PhD, RN Susan Howard, MS, RN | ||
| Washington Rural Nurse Internship Deana Molinari, PhD, RN, CNS | |||
| Wisconsin: Rural and Urban Connections Marilyn Meyer Bratt, PhD, RN | |||
| Wyoming: Nurse Internships in A Rural to Frontier Area Susan Howard, MS, RN | |||