PHOTO COURTESY OF GSHCS
Good Shepherd Health Care System recently graduated 17 people from its nurse residency program – the largest cohort since the program’s inception.
The graduates have begun working with an experienced nurse preceptor in the area they have chosen to specialize in. The residency program which began on Aug. 29, is an intensive learning experience for new nursing graduates where they gain in-depth knowledge of GSHCS processes, policies, and patient care areas.
“This is truly exciting for us,” shared GSHCS VP of Nursing Theresa Brock. “We have an exceptional group of new graduate RNs who joined our program because they were either from our community, enjoyed their clinicals at Good Shepherd, were impressed by our onboarding process and even wanted to work in a rural community.”
According to a recent article published in the Atlantic, though there has been a nursing shortage for quite some time it’s about to get even worse, due to our aging population and experienced nurses wanting to retire.
GSHCS nurse residency program nurse educator Phyllis Garcia, RN, believes that once this new cohort of nursing graduates have undergone a rigorous preceptorship, which in some cases may take a year, they will have more confidence and experience to take on their own patient care assignments.
“We have two residents in the Family Birth Center, two in our Intensive Care Unit, six in our main patient care unit Medical-Surgical, two in Surgery, and five in Emergency Services,” Garcia said. “I believe we extended an invitation to the right nurses to join our residency program and I feel confident that my profession is in good hands.”
Good Shepherd Health Care System’s next residency program will begin in August of 2017. Nurses expecting to graduate prior to August are encouraged to apply online or call Human Resources at 541-667-3546 for more information.
