Nurses play a critical role in delivering health care, often serving as the initial point of contact between the patient and the health care institution. As the U.S. population ages and chronic health concerns become more prevalent, nurses are in greater demand than ever. Currently, the available nursing pool falls short of meeting that demand; many leading nursing organizations have pointed to an ongoing scarcity of qualified caregivers, especially in rural and underserved areas.

Actions to help address the nursing shortage can begin with investing in the training and development of new nurses. Nurse residency programs ready nurses to enter the workforce and deliver exceptional clinical care. Both aspiring and current nurses may benefit from enrollment in a nurse residency program, which can sharpen the skills they learned in an academic setting.

What is a nurse residency program? What should nurses or aspiring nurses expect from it? At the most basic level, a residency program helps recent nursing grads, or those who are still new to the field, increase their clinical acumen and hone their medical skills.

In a residency program, typically at a hospital, nurses gain hands-on experience that prepares them to offer competent, confident care to their patients. This may involve experience in giving treatments, running diagnostic tests, using advanced medical record technology, or collaborating with other nurses.

In addition, a residency program is a support system that offers new nurses access to mentors in the health care organization.

While general residency programs exist, residencies are more commonly highly specialized. This allows nurses to gain in-depth, hands-on experience with the procedures, methodologies, and technologies that are unique to their department or nursing discipline. For example, a residency program might focus on pediatric care, emergency room support, women’s health issues, or care for patients with cancer.

Ideally, residency programs benefit nurses and health care organizations alike. The nurses gain experience and knowledge, so they can become more comfortable doing their work and make a more positive impact in the lives of their patients. The organizations benefit because, when nurses feel prepared for professional success, it leads to higher satisfaction, higher retention, and lower turnover.

Residency programs differ; however, most nurse residencies share the following characteristics:

• The timeline for a residency program is usually between six months and one year.
• Residency programs usually take place in hospital settings. Sometimes the hospital will build its own residency from the ground up, but more often, it purchases preset programs, with the intention of benefiting its nursing staff.
• Some residency programs are started with consultation or support from academic organizations, including local nursing schools.
• The typical residency program will have a preset curriculum, but it’ll also assign an adviser to each nurse who can help customize its program for any unique goals.

While residency programs are characterized by hands-on experience, they also include robust curricula, designed to help participants hone the knowledge and skills required to become more confident and quality-focused caregivers.

Reputable residency programs are accredited by one of two bodies: the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education or the American Nurses Credentialing Center. These organizations thoroughly assess residency programs, surveying their curricula and ensuring a high level of clinical precision and quality, as well as compliance with current best practices in the nursing profession. Nurses seeking a residency program are encouraged to verify accreditation through one of these two organizations.

While the specifics of a curriculum can vary depending on the nursing specialty being emphasized, all nurse residency curricula have in common a few characteristics.

• Person-centered. A good residency program will equip nurses to take a patient-centered, or person-centered, approach. This means exhibiting compassion, empathy, respect, and responsiveness to the needs and expressed values of each patient.
• Safety and quality. Residency program curricula are designed to help nurses prioritize the safety of each patient, minimizing risks associated with infection or other complications. Additionally, the curriculum usually puts a heavy emphasis on the quality of clinical outcomes.
• Technology and informatics. One of the main goals of any residency program is to help nurses become more familiar with the best available clinical technologies and improve their ability to collect, interpret, and use the most current health analytics.
• Evidence-based practice. The curriculum used in a residency program will also help nurses become more adept at accessing the most recent clinical literature and using it to refine their approach to proven, evidence-based care.
• Leadership development. Ultimately, many nurses desire to assume positions of greater authority or responsibility, perhaps even becoming nurse managers or directors one day. A good residency program will help facilitate qualities associated with leadership.

When enrolling in a residency program, nurses and nursing students should anticipate a combination of classroom learning and clinical encounters. The curriculum will usually include a didactic learning component, combined with real-world patient care scenarios that allow nurses to gain more hands-on experience. These clinical encounters will often be conducted with an adviser’s oversight.

For example, in a residency program, nurses may receive classroom instruction on a particular type of diagnostic test: what it measures, why it matters, and how it can help in the development of a sound clinical diagnosis. Next, the nurse may interact with real patients, getting the chance to administer the test, explain its significance to the patient, and interpret the results.

Residency programs can be an important arena where nurses can hone their skills, preparing them to better administer care and advance their careers. Different nurses may enter their residency desiring to hone particular skills, but the following skills can be crucial in the framework of a residency program:

Often, nurses represent the first point of contact between the patient and the health care organization; indeed, nurses often play an essential role in assessing patient conditions, triaging patients to the appropriate provider or department, or briefing doctors about potential needs or concerns.

Patient assessment is an essential skill, encompassing visual observation, interviewing skills, and more. Patient assessment calls for a balance of interpersonal skill, analytic ability, and basic clinical know-how. It’s often one of the skills that’s most heavily emphasized during the hands-on component of a residency program.

Clear, consistent communication is a bedrock of successful nursing. Nurses must be able to clearly communicate with patients, not only to glean necessary information about their symptoms but also to convey important details about treatment, recovery, and aftercare.

Nurses also play an important role in communicating patient concerns to doctors or other nurses, serving as liaisons between the patient and the rest of the clinical care team. In addition, nurses often educate patients and family members about wellness promotion and disease prevention. Residencies often give nurses ample opportunity to cultivate their communication skills.

Time management matters in most professions, but it can be especially prized among nurses, who must balance the needs of multiple patients at one time. At any given moment, a nurse may need to assess one patient, order tests for another, and administer first aid to still another. To deliver safe, quality outcomes as efficiently as possible, proper time management skills are critical. Many nurse residency programs will create the opportunity for the participants to develop better time management abilities.

In most clinical care settings, nurses work as part of a diverse team comprising other nurses as well as doctors in different specialties. Working with other caregivers can be challenging for new nurses, who may struggle to find their voice or to contribute their viewpoint in a way that’s appropriate and constructive. Firsthand experience working on an interprofessional team in the controlled framework of a residency can be a great way to build confidence.

For nurses, maintaining patient safety is a top priority. Most residencies place a heavy emphasis on patient safety, furnishing nurses with numerous ways to better promote the well-being of individuals in their care.

A patient safety focus may include training in infection prevention or in properly educating patients about necessary aftercare steps. Additionally, residency programs can provide nurses with the skills needed to communicate with their patients about appropriate medication use. Familiarity with patient safety best practices is one of the foremost reasons to enroll in a nurse residency.

One of the great challenges of the nursing profession is that clinical technology is constantly changing. Even new nurses can struggle to keep up, while rapid change may be an increasing challenge for veteran nurses. A good residency will instruct nurses of every skill level on how to use technology most effectively and how to keep abreast of all the latest evolutions.

Residency programs have many benefits, which can be divided into three basic categories: benefits to nurses, benefits to employers, and benefits to patients.

Certainly, participation in a residency program can be an advantage for nurses in many ways, enabling them to do their jobs at a higher level and potential to advance into positions of nurse leadership. The benefits to individual nurses include the following:

• Greater confidence. Even for those who’ve graduated from nursing school, working in a clinical care team or providing direct assistance to patients can be a little intimidating. A residency can supply inexperienced nurses with the confidence they need to disseminate care ably and to hold their own with more seasoned members of the profession.
• Increased job satisfaction. Simply put, feeling well-prepared and good at one’s job tends to result in a higher rate of professional satisfaction. This is certainly the case with nurses who go through residency programs.
• Reduced burnout. By the same token, feeling ill-prepared often results in professional fatigue or frustration. Nurses who hone their skills in a residency may experience a lower risk of burnout.
• Skill formation. Enrollment in a residency program creates the chance for nurses to hone their skills in a hands-on setting, focusing particularly on the kinds of skills that can only be cultivated on the clinical floor. Examples include communication, leadership, problem-solving, and clinical decision-making.

A nurse residency program can also yield benefits to organizations or institutions that employ nurses. These benefits include the following:

• Stronger teams. When nurses are all adept at clear communication, and when they can all perform their individual roles with confidence, it tends to result in more coherent and efficient teams.
• Lower turnover. Because residency programs increase employee satisfaction and reduce burnout, they also lead to lower turnover. Thus, a residency also helps reduce some of the expenses associated with recruiting, hiring, and training nurses.
• Improved safety and efficiency. Health organizations that invest in nurse development benefit from higher levels of clinical quality, safety, and efficiency. This translates to patient satisfaction and full regulatory compliance.
• Better morale. Finally, a residency program can facilitate better morale and lower levels of stress within nursing teams, increasing workplace satisfaction while bolstering patient outcomes.

Finally, residency-trained nurses can bring value to patients. Examples are:

• Improved quality of care. Residency-trained nurses are well prepared to offer compassionate, patient-centered care, always emphasizing safety as well as clinical outcomes. All of this means a better overall patient experience.
• Higher level of caregiver commitment. Nurses who’ve been trained in a residency will also be more confident and committed in seeking out the best solutions for the patients in their care.

Nurses who seek to work in a specific area of care have many specialized residency programs to choose from. Consider the following examples of specialized nurse residencies:

Several residency options are available for new registered nurses who’ve completed nursing school but don’t have a wide range of experience in clinical care. These residencies can be ideal for developing basic clinical skills; for gaining confidence; for learning to contribute to a clinical care team; and for becoming acclimated to important clinical technologies, including analytics.

Some nurses may seek positions in long-term care facilities, where they can avoid the urgency of the hospital environment and cultivate relationships with their patients over a longer period of time. The right residency program can help hone the unique skills needed for long-term care roles.

Still other nurses may decide that their calling is to offer comfort and care for patients faced with terminal conditions. Through enrollment in a nurse residency, they can cultivate skills that will translate into hospice and palliative care settings.

Ambulatory care refers to any clinical treatments that are performed on an outpatient basis. For nurses who want to work in an ambulatory setting, completing a residency program can be highly beneficial.

Nurses who are passionate about assisting the elderly have opportunities to focus their practice on dementia or on other issues common to the aging process. Completion of a residency program can help cultivate the skills to deliver empathetic care to geriatric patients.

Patients who have cancer may need to receive ongoing oncology treatment, encompassing radiation, chemotherapy, surgical intervention, and more. Nurses can play a crucial role in keeping these patients safe and comfortable. A nurse residency can furnish them with the skills to care for patients with cancer.

Nurses play a crucial role at every level of health care delivery. To ensure confidence in their practice and to position themselves to find real joy in treating patients, nurses may wish to consider a wide range of training and development opportunities. Residency programs can be beneficial, especially to nurses who are still fairly new to the job.

Additionally, nurses who long for positions of greater leadership and responsibility may seek an advanced degree. Hawai‘i Pacific University’s online Master of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice program is an excellent option for nurses who want to build in their existing clinical skills while fleshing out their medical expertise. Discover how this degree can translate into new opportunities for professional success.