Transition to Practice: Benefits of Nurse Residency Programs

Purpose: Newly graduated nurses are the workforce of the future. The complex healthcare environment makes the transition from new graduate to competent nurse challenging. A structured support system is essential to ensure a smooth and safe transition process. Nursing residency programs are well established in the literature as a mechanism of support. Formalized nurse residency programs have been shown to strengthen newly graduated nurses’ capacity to care through patient-focused activities, critical thinking, and professional commitment to the discipline 

Methods: Nurses who practice an ethic of caring, are well-educated with relevant clinical experience, appreciate and contribute to interdisciplinary care, and ground their activities in available empiric and expert evidence while remaining patient-centered, are in the best position to ensure that the highest quality care is rendered to our Veterans. For newly graduated nurses to meet this standard, additional individualized support through mentoring and experiential and didactic educational activities is needed.  Newly graduated nurses were selected to participate in an Academic-Practice Partnership with the VA Boston Healthcare system and 6 college of nursing.  At the end of the program, evaluations were completed.  

Results: The evaluation process revealed that the NERVANA PBNR prgram was effective in improving the quality and safety of health care for Vererans, implemented best practice principles, promoted patient-centered care and developed future health care professionals in a supported environment.

Conclusion:

Nurse residents practice an ethic of caring, are well educated with relevant clinical experience, appreciate and contribute to interdisciplinary care, and ground their activities in empiric and expert evidence while remaining patient centered.  Through the individualized support and mentoring which is provided in the PBNR curriculum, the residents participate in experiential and didactic educational activities to meet the goals of the program and to support the novice's transition to practice