A sense of excitement and eagerness filled the community room of CHC in Middletown this morning. Starting at 8am, twenty individuals arrived to their newfound residency orientation. Amongst this group, ten people were selected to join the 8^th class of Nurse Practitioner Residents, a national residency training program first of its kind which was created by Dr. Margaret Flinter, CHC’s Senior VP & Chief Clinical Director. Four additional residents traveled to Connecticut from Washington to train with the CHC residents this week before they start their programs in Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (3 residents) and Colombia Basin Health Association (1 resident).

CHC’s residency program is hosting training programs within these two organizations in conjunction with the National Nurse Practitioner Residency Training Consortium; they will continue the partnership throughout the year as apart of adopting CHC’s program model. One of the goals established in 2007 at the launch of this NPR program was national replication of CHC’s model of residency training for primary care nurse practitioners and this combined orientation is a perfect example of accomplishing that goal.

The breakfast orientation also included the six new members of the Post-Doctoral Psychology resident program which is in its 3^rd year here at Community Health Center, Inc. The first day of a new career can be filled with much anticipation but as multiple leaders of CHC spoke to the group in combination with watching the video of Dr. Jack Geiger present during Weitzman Symposium in May, you could see the look of determination within each chair as they listened intently. These residents chose this program for a reason and passion seems to be overflowing after just witnessing day 1.

The main idea of creating and fostering residency programs is to improve the clinical skills, confidence, productivity, and job satisfaction of new providers who choose to work in an underserved community setting. Since the idea came to Dr. Margaret Flinter in 2005 to fill the gap between a quality education and quality care, the programs have seen great growth and expansion on a national level. With all the new residents traveling from across the US, including CT to start their yearlong training program, they will begin their journey to support the underserved in any capacity starting with obtaining the tools directly from CHC and we welcome you!