Grab Your Toolbox – It’s Time to Build a Nurse Residency Program that Works for Your Organization

April 1, 2021
April 1, 2021

Whether your organization is one of the estimated 80% that already has its own nurse residency program or you are contemplating starting to build one, HealthStream’s Nurse Residency solution will work with your healthcare organization’s goals, culture, and strategic initiatives. Here are some of the tools we make available for Nurse Residency programs:

Tools: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI would likely not have been the first thing on a nurse leader’s mind even 5 years ago while planning a nurse residency program, but it should be now. HealthStream’s JaneTM is the foundation of HealthStream’s competency development system. Using the power of AI, Jane provides value for leaders and students, giving insight into both knowledge and judgement as well as critical thinking skills. The content includes clinical information, and the program also evaluates equally important attributes such as attitude, critical thinking and judgement.

Jane’s assessments are based on interactive videos that include brief, real-life scenarios. Jane then asks questions that help quantify the nurse’s skills as well as opportunities for improvement. In addition to developing a corrective plan, Jane also provides advice for that nurse’s preceptor.

The output is an individualized learning plan that is more efficient, targeted, and relevant than most traditional plans that fail to address existing strengths.

Tools: Support for All Stakeholders

Nurse residency programs are specifically designed to support new graduates and transitioning nurses, but a comprehensive program really needs to provide support for all stakeholders. HealthStream’s Nurse Residency program provides training on how to successfully launch the program; however, the support does not stop there. There is ongoing training to help ensure that users and administrators are properly oriented to the program and understand operations and all of the programs’ resources and reporting.

HealthStream also provides a dedicated Pathways Engagement Coach who is available through each step of the program. Training templates and ongoing training that is available through the Community of Practice also supports leaders and ensures support for administrators as well. In addition, there is a separate track (Preceptor Development program) that addresses the unique needs of preceptors and ensures their competency as well.

Tools: Support for Specialty Tracks

One of the more unique features of HealthStream’s program is how both the competency assessments and the courseware itself are designed to support a broad spectrum of specialty tracks beyond the traditional Med-Surg content that is so foundational to most residency programs. HealthStream’s specialty tracks are designed to help assess, develop, and remediate skills in a variety of specialties. They help cross-train and efficiently bring new and transitioning nurses up to date on practice standards for a variety of specialties. The specialty tracks also provide analytics and evaluate competency in real time.

Tools – Engaging Content

Less can be more when it comes to content—or at least when it comes to the length of the content. It is probably safe to say that all nurses have sat through long-winded training sessions whose very length made them less engaging than they could have been. HealthStream’s Nurse Residency solution understands this. Our brief (approximately 2 to 4 minute) video vignettes are created to be interactive and assess competency quickly and efficiently without boring learners.

The content is engaging and is more likely to help build a culture where lifelong learning is embraced, and learners are supported (and more easily recruited).  When instructor-led training is more appropriate, the program can easily flex between that and on-line content delivery.

Since culture plays a significant role in the success of any Nurse Residency program, our resources are molded around your organization’s DNA, boosting your reputation as an employer of choice.

Find out how our proven Nurse Residency tools can help you sustainably reduce nursing turnover.