Participant Voices: Making a Nurse Residency Program Better

Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) is a Magnet®-designated hospital located in St. Louis, Missouri, and is committed to attracting, training, and developing a highly qualified, diverse nursing workforce. In 2009, BJH implemented a nurse residency program (NRP) based on the University HealthSystem Consortium and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (UHC/AACN) model.1 The NRP, coordinated by the hospital's Center for Practice Excellence (CPE), is designed to assist new graduate nurses in building the competence and confidence necessary for a successful transition into professional nursing practice. Over the course of the year-long residency, each nurse participates in monthly 4-hour educational sessions that focus on professional development, with an emphasis on critical thinking, in areas such as changing patient condition, ethics, patient safety, practicing safe patient care, and quality patient outcomes.