The Nurse Practitioner Residency Program and the Future of Nursing

Earlier this week, I received an email from Kerry Bamrick about CHC’s Nurse Practitioner Residency program:

On Thursday, June 16,^, 2011 Margaret Flinter and I were invited to Princeton, NJ to attend New Jersey’s Regional Action Coalition Meeting. 

New Jersey was selected as one of 5 pilot states in the Unites States to participate in the prestigious: Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action.  The purpose of the action coalition is to guide the implementation of the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report. They have been tasked with implementing recommendation #3 which calls for action to support nurses’ completion of transition-to-practice residency after they have completed a pre-licensure or an advanced practice degree program, as well as when transitioning into a new clinical area, focusing on nurse residency programs for both entry level nurses and APRNs.  Margaret and I presented on CHC’s Family Nurse Practitioner Residency Training model.   We provided Q&A to the audience of 40, all nursing leaders from around New Jersey and participated in their work groups.

The New Jersey’s Regional Action Coalition is led by co-chairs: Susan W. Salmond, EdD, RN, Professsor and Dean from UMDNJ School of Nursing and Edna Cadmus, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, Clinical Professor and Director of DNP program- Rutgers University College of Nursing.  They are all looking at CHC, Inc. as the founder of the Nation’s First Nurse Practitioner Residency Training Program to provide leadership and collaboration as they implement nurse residency programs across New Jersey. This was a fantastic meeting and the first of many discussions we will be having with them.

In 2007, CHC launched the first-in-the nation formal Nurse Practitioner Residency Training Program to support the transition of new Nurse Practitioners to primary care providers. Our goal is national replication of CHC’s model of community-based residency training for family nurse practitioners. Since 2007, there has been significant national interest from community health centers across the country interested in initiating a nurse practitioner residency training program after our model.  They include: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

On October 5, 2010 The IOM’s two-year Initiative on the Future of Nursing, chaired by former HHS Secretary Donna Shalala, released its report, called “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.” The report concludes with eight key recommendations, including recommendation #3: Implement nurse residency programs. Recommendation #3 calls for action to support nurses’ completion of transition-to-practice residency after they have completed a pre-licensure or an advanced practice degree program, as well as when transitioning into a new clinical area. Section 3 (pp3-1 through 3-53) of the report, titled “Transforming Practice,” includes an elaboration on the need for residency training for new nurse practitioners and specifically references (p. 3-34) the testimony of Margaret Flinter, SVP and clinical director of Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC), on the need for residency training for new nurse practitioners and the model developed by CHC in establishing the country’s first such residency training program for advanced practice registered nurses.