Nurses Graduate Memorial RN Residency Program

Katelyn Jones, clinical education specialist and co-manager of the program, said the program covers some specialized topics such as end-of-life, critical care, skin and nutrition, peri-op and cardiac care – to name a few.

“The program is run by clinical educators from Memorial’s Center for Practice Excellence and content experts throughout Memorial,” Jones said. “We enroll new graduate nurses across both campuses and several units.”

Jones said the main benefit of the program is to ease new graduates into hands-on care.

“The transition our new graduates face is immense, overwhelming, and often linked to new graduate nurses leaving the bedside,” she said. “Through integration of education and the comradery of other new graduate nurses learning and growing alongside one another, they are able to relate to their peers through the transitional period and build friendships across units at Memorial.”

Rachel Robben, clinical education specialist and co-manager of the program, went through the RN Residency Program in 2015-2016 and said she can still remember the impact the program made on her transition into practice even seven years later.

“The connections with peers was a major benefit for me,” Robben said. “I really struggled with identity fraud and did not feel as if I was worthy or ready for the title of registered nurse. During most months of the program, time was allotted for reflections. Having the opportunity to share my struggles and hear the struggles of others significantly eased my worries about not being prepared to practice as a nurse.”

Robben said many of the RNs in her graduating class could relate to the struggles she faced.

“Time for reflection is still highly valued by current members and is incorporated into most of our residency sessions today,” she said.

Robben added that being able to study and learn from Memorial experts was also extremely beneficial to new RNs.

“We also benefitted from all the ancillary staff that presented at residency, such as the diabetes and speech therapy educators,” she said. “As a night shift nurse, I was not aware of all the resources we had available. Being able to learn about the services we offer and how to utilize them was invaluable. Now having the opportunity to coordinate this program alongside Katelyn has been such an honor. We were handed a program with a great foundation.”

The RN Residency Program Center for Practice Excellence in 2006 and officially opened to new graduate nurses at Memorial in 2007. Jones said the requirement for RN Residency is to be a new graduate nurse hired at Memorial. She said the program does allow nurses with minimal hospital or nursing experience to enter the Residency at their manager’s discretion. The program has seen more than 480 graduates since 2016.

December 2022 graduates included Catrina Bartholomy, Sabrina Caroll, Kylie Clemens, Jillian Dumont, Emilee Ellingsworth, Hye Han, Peyton Holzinger, Laura Kish, Alisha Kloss, Joseline Lopez-Reyes, Dalton Morgan, Sara Soucy, Delena Stokes, Mercedes Tejkowski and Alicia Tondevold.