Maggie McKay (Host): So, you made it through nursing school. Now what? What does the future look like? And what's the future for nursing in general? Alexandria Niehaus, critical care clinical nurse educator, is here to tell us about Jefferson Healthcare's new grad nurse residency program.

Welcome to To Your Health, a podcast from Jefferson Healthcare. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Thank you so much for being here today, Alex.

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: Thank you. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to talk about our program today.

Host: Would you please give us a little bit of your background first?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: Yeah. I have been a nurse for over 10 years. I actually started my nursing career in Ohio where I'm from initially. I've worked pediatric trauma, adult trauma, and I've been in this role as our clinical nurse educator since October of 2021.

Host: And tell us what the new grad residency program is?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: So, our new grad residency program here at Jefferson Healthcare is a one-year long comprehensive program designed for our newly graduated nurses who just graduated nursing school. It's a really great program where you get to progress through the program with other newly graduated nurses. There's a focus on education and collaboration. Throughout this program, you will receive additional support from not only the education department, your nursing leaders, but also from your preceptors. We meet once a month for the first several months with your cohort of other nursing students or other newly graduated nurses. And we do education and we have class time and we have that time to really share what are our experiences and what are the things that we need to know in growing pains as new nurses.

Once you are off your orientation period, which can vary between 12 weeks and 16 weeks, you will be working on your own independently as a nurse, but you will still have the support of the program. We continue to meet regularly. All of our new grads will do an evidence-based practice project with their cohort. And then, you will graduate from the program after one year.

Host: So Alex, how did you get involved in the program? Did you start it?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: Yeah. When I had started working here in October of 2021, we did not have a residency program in place at Jefferson Healthcare, but it was a need that we definitely identified. Especially after COVID, the healthcare nursing shortage was very apparent. And at Jefferson Healthcare, we really wanted to find a way to attract newer nurses to our hospital, but to be able to support them and to make sure that if they are coming in as new grad RNs that they have the support and the resources they need to be successful.

And studies have shown that new grad residency programs improve the retention of new nurses, and being a new nurse is a really scary and challenging time. So having that additional support, resources, education, really is the ideal way to make that transition. And at Jefferson, we really wanted to make sure that we could offer that and allow our new grad nurses to really thrive and be the best that they can be.

Host: What are some of the requirements to get into the program?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: So for our program, you do need to be a newly graduated RN within six months of your nursing program. We start accepting applications sometime mid-April to May, we will have our interviews. So, we do do a panel interview with multiple of our leaders. So even if it's a department that maybe you are not interested in, you will actually get to meet several of the leaders. And we do require a little bit of an essay on talking about why you think this program would be a good fit for you. And other than that, we really just want people who are excited to be here, are willing to learn, and value Jefferson Healthcare in our community-focused and small hospital-minded values that we have.

Host: How long does the program last?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: The program does last a full year, and that does comprise of your foundational period where you will be paired with a nursing preceptor one to one. That includes shadowing experiences where you get to go out throughout the whole hospital and work in different departments to get an idea of how different departments operate like the lab and respiratory and home health and hospice. And then, you'll be paired with that nurse preceptor for a foundational period of 12 to 16 weeks where you are one on one with that preceptor. And then, once you are working independently, you still will have a lot of resources. We keep a really close eye on our new grads, making sure that they have the support that they need. But the program does last a full year where you're in the program. We are making sure that you have your support. We do meet intermittently after you are off orientation. And then, yeah, at the end of the one year, we have a really awesome graduation ceremony where our CEO and CNO come and we recognize all the hard work that you've done.

Host: Is it optional or do all nurses coming in have to go through it?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: For any newly graduated RN, we do have you go through the residency program. And only because when you are working as a new RN, you really do need that extra support. And we want to make sure that we are able to keep an eye on you and make sure that you have the resources that you need, so for all newly graduated RNs who have never worked as an RN before.

Host: Alex, how do you think Jefferson Healthcare's program is different from, say, other hospitals?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: An incredible advantage that we have here is that we're small and we are really community-focused. And because of that, you get a lot of attention. We aren't spreading ourselves thin trying to train, you know, 40 to 50 newly graduated RNs. Our cohort's average size is between five and seven new grads. So, that really means you're going to get a lot of attention. You're going to be with a very small core group of people who you can really relate to and share experiences with.

Because we are so small, as a hospital, a focus that we really have on our nurses is flexibility and adaptability. We have a really incredible cross training program where we allow nurses who are hired into one department, like our medical surgical floor, to be able to cross train to take patients in our intensive care unit or different units. And that is an experience that is a lot harder to come by in larger hospitals where you are kind of siloed into a very specific specialty.

But here at Jefferson, you know, we want to allow you to have different experiences and become that flexible, adaptable nurse, which is really important when you are starting off and you're new, is to be able to have different experiences and not be pigeonholed. Because the wonderful thing about nursing is that there's so much variety and there's so many different things that you can do. So here at Jefferson, it really is a great place to start and figure out maybe where your nursing career is going to take you. And we're open to really making the experience work for you.

Host: I can definitely see why somebody would want to be involved in the program. I mean, it sounds like you get so much support and help. And probably, it makes you feel more at home than you would if you're just coming in thrown into it.

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: Yeah, absolutely. I think really, to me, one of the most valuable pieces too is starting off with those other new grads and feeling like, "Hey, I'm not alone and I have somebody else going through this with me, even if they're working in a totally different department and even if maybe I don't see them on the day to day when I'm taking care of patients, but we get to come together and, you know, talk and be like, 'Hey, have you had this experience yet?'" and I really see a lot of value in that. I truly love getting to watch my new grads come together and talk about their experiences. And watching them grow is a pretty remarkable experience for me personally and getting to see their progress.

Host: I bet that is rewarding. How could somebody find out more?

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: They can navigate to our website at jeffersonhealthcare.org. We do have a section on our website that is specifically targeted at our residency program. It does have a lot of information about the length of the program, things to expect, and most importantly, how to apply.

Host: Well, it definitely sounds like a win-win for everybody, the nurses and the hospital, because the hospital is putting so much into their career. Then, like you said, the retention rate is high and they'll stay there, hopefully, for years and everybody wins.

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: Yeah, absolutely. And it is something that I have really, really enjoyed putting together and developing, and it is definitely one of the most rewarding parts of my job.

Host: Thank you so much for joining us today, Alex. This has been really informative and helpful.

Alexandria Niehaus, RN-BSN: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you all for having me on here and allowing me to talk about our incredible program.

Host: Again, that's Alex Niehaus. If you'd like to find out more, please visit jeffersonhealthcare.org/residencyprogram. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening to To Your Health from Jefferson Healthcare.