Development of a Long-Term Care Nurse Residency Program

Nurses working in the long-term care (LTC) setting provide increasingly complex patient care, often without formal training on the specific needs of LTC patients, which can lead to burnout and high turnover rates. Nurse residency programs (NRPs) have been used effectively to orient novice RNs to their work setting, address transition-to-practice challenges, and promote retention, yet few LTC NRPs have been developed. The University of Utah Geriatric Education Consortium Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program created an online LTC NRP to provide LTC nurses with the knowledge and skills to succeed in the LTC environment. RNs with <1 year of LTC experience were paired with experienced nurse mentors working within the same LTC facility. Synchronous and asynchronous curricular modules addressed leadership and communication, caring for older adult patients, quality improvement, and the LTC regulatory environment. A distance-based LTC NRP allows nurses flexibility in gaining gerontological nursing and leadership expertise that supports their professional goals. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 47(2), 37-43.].